About This Print

Source: Crows, Cranes & Camellias: The Natural World of Ohara Koson 1877-1945, Amy Reigle Newland, Jan Perrée, Robert Schaap, Hotei Publishing, 2003, plate 149 caption. White-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) appear in a setting of grey reeds and water.

 

Catalogue Entry from The Toledo Art Museum Show 1930 

(notes on the original edition)

One of twenty-one prints by Shōson that were shown in the first shin hanga exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1930.

Source: Modern Japanese Prints, Dorothy Blair, re-print of the 1931 and 1936 exhibition catalogues, The Toledo Museum of Art, 1997, figure 180.

WILD GEESE (Gan)

Gray reeds and water; geese in light red-brown, grey, white and black, with orange beaks and legs.  Background is blue.
Signed “Shoson”; also his seal.  Margin: Copyright stamp of Watanabe Shozaburo.  Edition, 200 impressions¹; issued in 1926. 14 9/32 x 9 15/32.

¹ As is noted in Crows, Cranes & Camellias the edition of size of 200 only reflects the edition size up to 1931 when the first Toledo exhibition was held.  Many later editions of this print are known.

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#13
Title	Wild Geese (Gan)
Series
Artist	Ohara Koson (1877 - 1945)
Signature	Shōson 祥邨
Seal	Shōson 祥邨
Date	originally issued 1926
Edition	Later edition (c. 1946-1957) with black circular 6 mm Watanabe type-I seal in lower right hand corner of image.  This print was purchased in the mid-1950s.
Publisher	Watanabe Shōzaburō ワタナベ [Watanabe] Watanabe "A-type" 6mm round seal
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	excellent - pin hole upper left margin
Miscellaneous
Genre	shin-hanga (new prints)
Format	oban-tate
H x W Paper	15 3/8 x 10 1/4 in. (39.1 x 26 cm)
H x W Image	14 1/4 x 9 3/4 in. (36.2 x 24.8 cm)
Collections This Print	Los Angeles County Museum of Art M.2000.105.102 (no edition noted); Art Gallery of New South Wales 28.2009 (likely first edition); Rijksmuseum RP-P-1999-490 (seal type D); Toledo Museum of Art 1930, no. 180 (Watanabe type-B seal)
Reference Literature	CatalogueRaisonné: Crows, Cranes & Camellias: The Natural World of Ohara Koson 1877-1945, Amy Reigle Newland, Jan Perrée, Robert Schaap, HoteiPublishing, 2001,S-11.5 (cat. 149); Modern Japanese Prints, Dorothy Blair, re-print of the 1931 and 1936exhibition catalogs, The Toledo Museum of Art, 1997, figure 180; Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, Carol M. Putney, et. al., Toledo Museum of Art, 2014, Cat. 187, p. 219; Catalogue of Wood-Cut Colour Prints of S. Watanabe, 1936, p. 97, cat. O8 titled ""Wild-Geese flying over reeds"

last revision: