HEINE, WilhelmBiblio.com
HEINE, Wilhelm (1827-1885)Biblio.com
Street and Bridge at Simoda
185642583New York: G.P. Putnam & Company 1856. Tinted lithograph mounted on support sheet with printed letters as issued with small stab holes where previously bound. A finely observed street scene at Shimoda Japan from Graphic Scenes of the Japan Expedition based on Wilhelm Heine's drawings during Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan showing the newly accessible treaty port through its built environment local movement and everyday encounters.<br/> <br/> Heine's view presents a street near the gate at Shimoda in Izu Province shortly after the port's opening to American vessels under the Treaty of Kanagawa. The scene is organized around a small arched stone bridge with pale balustrades set before a shrine approach marked by a large torii stone lanterns thatched and tiled buildings and tall windswept trees. The composition balances architectural record with social observation giving equal attention to the cut-stone bridge the street's raised central path the houses lining the road and the figures who animate the foreground. At right two bearers carry a traveller in a kago the enclosed palanquin used in Japan where wheeled carriages were not part of ordinary travel. In the foreground adults and children gather around a seated figure likely an artist drawing in the street while other figures pass across the bridge or stand beneath the torii. These small groups give the print a sense of immediacy: Shimoda appears as a functioning town observed at close range. Wilhelm Heine was the official artist on Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-54. On returning to the United States he produced several series of prints commemorating the trip. A group of six elephant-folio prints appeared in 1855 and the following year a second volume was issued in a smaller format with different images and with explanatory text. Both projects employed the New York lithographic firm of Sarony among the best lithographers in the United States at that time.<br/> <br/> Bennett p.53; McGrath American Color Plate Books 123. G.P. Putnam & Company unknown
Donald Heald Rare Books · États-Unis1 000,00 $US≈ 846,10 €
