Japanese Woodblock Print, c.1930s, published by Shima Art Company

SIZE IN INCHES: chuban, approx. 7.5 x 10

PROVENANCE: From the Robert O. Muller estate

SEITEI WATANABE (1851-1918) began to study art at the age of sixteen, and for a short period he worked in the studio of Shibata Zeshin. Seitei contributed handicraft work to the Paris Exhibition of 1878, and afterward remained in Paris for three years to study European style painting. When he returned to Japan in 1881, he continued to contribute to exhibitions of Japanese art and handicraft outside the country and won several awards for painting. Seitei was one of the pioneers of kuchi-e, woodblock-printed frontispiece illustrations produced for publication in Japanese novels and literary magazines in the late 19th century. The primary subject matter of kuchi-e are bijin - "beautiful women".

It is an ongoing source of confusion for some collectors that Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918), sometimes also used the name "Shotei." Seitei was well known for his kacho prints of birds and flowers, and was a fine artist in his own right, but should not be confused with Takahashi Shotei (Hiroaki).

Fine, no flaws