Frances Before Blakemore

If you are a collector of post-War Japanese art, you're probably familiar with the name "Frances Blakemore" as the author of the 1975 Tuttle book "Who's Who in Modern Japanese Prints" (or her follow-up book "Japanese Design Through Textile Patterns").  If you were in Tokyo between 1965 and 1984, you might have visited the Franell Gallery which, by 1973, had relocated to the prestigious Okura Hotel, where Blakemore championed the work of contemporary Japanese printmakers and exhibited her own (often abstract) oil paintings.  Or if you were an attorney with business in Japan, you might have had dealings with Frances' husband, Thomas Blakemore, who worked on the revision of the Japanese legal code after WWII, became the first Westerner to pass the Japanese bar exam, and founded the Blakemore and Mitsuki Law Office in Tokyo.  More recently, if you were a language student or a tax-exempt organization in the United States, you might have applied for and/or received a fellowship or grant from the Blakemore Foundation that Thomas and Frances Blakemore established in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. 

Frances Baker aboard a ferry to Sado Island (1937)

Courtesy of the Blakemore Foundation

But Frances Lee Wismer Baker Blakemore (1906-1997) had a now largely-forgotten career as a woodblock and linocut print artist in Washington State and in Japan prior to WWII.  Born Frances Lee Wismer in Pana, Illinois in 1906, her family moved to Spokane, Washington, in 1908 when her German immigrant father won eighty acres of homestead land in a lottery.  After her father died in 1915, her mother remarried and moved with Frances and her sister to Mabton, Washington.  After graduating high school in 1924, Frances Wismer studied art part-time at the University of Washington in Seattle under Walter Isaacs and Helen Rhodes, finally graduating in 1935.  To support herself and to pay for tuition during that ten-year period, she gave private art lessons, was a substitute art teacher, sold home-made jewelry, worked summers as an apple packer, illustrated children's books, and was a commercial graphic artist for local businesses.

High Water at Moore's Point (1930) (from Twelve Block Prints of Lake Chelan)

by Frances Wismer

Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum)

(linoleum-block print)

Frances Wismer was making linoleum-block prints  at least as early as 1928.  In 1929, she submitted seven such prints to the first annual exhibition of the Northwest Print Makers (later called Northwest Printmakers), winning the Purchase Prize for her work High Water at Moore's Point, Chelan.  In 1930, she collaborated with her friend Grace Perry to publish Twelve Block Prints of Lake Chelan, contributing six designs.  She would continue to submit prints (and oil paintings) to the Northwest Printmakers' exhibitions over the next ten years.  David Martin tells me that Frances also started to make color white line woodblock prints in the 1920s (most now lost or unaccounted for), having learned to make them from her teacher, Helen Rhodes, who had spent time to Provincetown, Massachusetts.  In 1935, she submitted the color print Gymkhana to the 1935 Northwest Printmakers exhibition, although no color images of this print (or, indeed, a copy of the print itself), can currently be located.

 Gymkhana (1935) by Frances Wismer

Reproduced in Territorial Hues: The Color Print and Washington State 1920-1960

by David F. Martin

(color woodblock print)

Shortly after graduating from the University of Washington in 1935, Frances married Glenn Baker, a graduate student in the University's English Literature Department.  The pair honeymooned in Japan, where the Bakers hoped to find teaching positions.  Ultimately, they ended up teaching at such institutions at Hosei University, Keio Medical University, and Waseda High School.  Frances Baker also painted murals and drew weekly sketches for Japan News Week.  She would remain in Tokyo until 1940, when the political situation arising out of the Sino-Japanese conflict and the beginning of WWII in Europe made remaining in Japan untenable.

Chindon'ya (aka "Street Musicians") (1937) by Frances Baker

Submitted to the 1937 Northwest Printmakers Exhibition

Personal Collection

(linoleum-block print)

While in Tokyo, Frances Baker continued to make black and white linocuts and woodblock prints, most featuring Japanese scenes, and to submit many of them to the Northwest Printmakers Annuals.  Besides Chindon'ya, the others of which I am aware are shown below:

[Parade] (c. 1937-1940) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum

(woodblock or linoleum-block print)

Bel Tower (aka "Zempukuji") (c. 1939) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery

(woodblock print)

Two Women with Baskets (aka "Basket Carriers") (c. 1939) by France Baker

Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum

(woodblock print)

 

Planting Rice (aka Rice Planting) (c. 1939) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum

(woodblock print)

 

 Purse-Seiners (aka "Jibiki-Ami") by Frances Baker

 Submitted to the 1939 Northwest Printmakers Exhibition

Personal Collection

(linoleum-block print)

 

Boy and Buffalo (1940) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery

(woodblock print)

 

Boy and Water Buffalo (c. 1940) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum

(woodblock or linoleum-block print)

 

Japanese Bath (c. 1936-1937) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of Shotei.com

(color woodblock print)

In late 1936 or early 1937, Frances Baker commissioned the Japanese publisher Watanabe Shozoburô to make a color woodblock print based on one of her designs of a Japanese bathhouse.  Because the blocks were carved and printed by Japanese artisans, this print is far more technically complex than the color woodblock prints that Frances was able to produce on her own.  As Marc Kahn notes in an article on Blakemore on his Shotei website, this copy bears an unusual five petal flower seal and an oval Watanabe seal that says "printed by" rather than "published by" Watanabe.  While Kahn wonders if this means that the blocks were carved elsewhere, I think this is doubtful.  Rather, I think that Blakemore was the publisher who was responsible for all the sales of these prints, and that the oval seal was simply used in order to credit Watanabe's studio as the place where the prints had been made.  In fact, all of the other copies that I've seen of this design lack the oval seal altogether.

Children Playing on the Street (c. 1936-1937) by Frances Baker

Personal Collection

(color woodblock print)

A second color woodblock print of children playing a Japanese version of hopscotch was made around the same time.  Interestingly, as Kahn also notes, some copies of these prints were signed "F. Wismer Baker" whereas others were signed "Frances L. Baker" (over a partially-erased signature of "F. Wismer Baker").  I can only assume that she decided that her early print work under her maiden name would be unknown to her current clientele or else she no longer felt a need to hide behind a non-specific gender signature to be taken seriously.  Unlike Japanese Bath, Children Playing in the Street bears the conventional 6mm round Watanabe seal.  This design also appears to have been printed in large quantities, because it turns up with greater frequency in the marketplace than Japanese Bath does.  Perhaps the round Watanabe seal was used on this print because Baker and Watanabe came to an agreement whereby Watanabe was to retain and sell a certain number of copies on her behalf (or retained and sold a number of copies on its own behalf as partial payment for Baker's use of Watanabe's artisans).

Sado-ga-shima (1938) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of Martin-Zambito Fine Art

(color woodblock print)

Far Eastern Madonna (1939) by Frances Baker

Reproduced in Territorial Hues: The Color Print and Washington State 1920-1960

by David F. Martin

(white line color woodblock print)

Far Eastern Madonna (1939) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery

(color woodblock print)

Baker self-carved and printed at least two additional color prints in the late 1930s.  The second, called Far Eastern Madonna, won the Purchase Prize of the 1939 Northwest Printmakers Annual.

Cover and bookplate illustration for Awapuhi (1947)

based on linoleum-block print illustrations by Frances Baker

Courtesy of Manu Antiques

While residing in Honolulu during WWII, Frances made linoleum-block prints that were used to illustrate a Hawaiian child book by Elma T. Cabral called Awapuhi.  Although it is outside the scope of this blog, Blakemore's most interesting work during this period was designing war propaganda leaflets for the Office of War Information that were dropped on combat areas throughout the Southwest Pacific and the Japanese islands.

War Propaganda Leaflet 2048 (c. 1945) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of Flying Tiger Antiques

War Propaganda Leaflet 414 (c. 1945) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of www.psywarrior.com

 War Propaganda Leaflet 2065 (c. 1945) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of www.psywarrior.com

 War Propaganda Leaflet 2056 (c. 1945) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of www.pbs.org

War Propaganda Leaflet 2030 (c. 1945) by Frances Baker

Courtesy of www.pbs.org

Frances and Glenn Baker separated during the war and were officially divorced in early 1946.  By the summer of 1946, Frances had returned to Tokyo and begun working for Civil Information and Education (CI&E) Section of the Supreme Commander for Allied Power/General Headquarters.  She was responsible for designing, producing and circulating brochures, posters, and exhibitions designed to promote the reconstruction process taking place in Occupied Japan.  In 1949, she created a booklet called Jeeper's Japan: As Seen by the Occupation as a souvenir for the Occupation staff.  It contained 24 illustrations with rhyming couplets providing humorous commentary on life in Occupied Japan.

 

 

Cover and two illustrations from 

Jeeper's Japan: As Seen by the Occupation (1949) by Frances Baker

Near the end of her tenure at the CI&E, Frances acted as an advisor for The American Fair of 1950 and the Democratization of Japan exhibition in 1951.  When the Occupation of Japan ended in 1952, she transferred to the American Embassy in Toyko as an exhibition officer of the United States Information Service, where she worked until 1957.  Her biggest project at the American embassy was the Atoms-for-Peace exhibition in 1955.  She also collaborated with Oliver Statler on a Modern Prints exhibition in 1952 that toured the United States and which introduced many Americans for the first time to the prints by artists of the sosaku hanga (creative print) movement.

Tom and Frances Blakemore during a hunting trip to Izu Peninsula (1960)

Courtesy of the Blakemore Foundation

Frances had renewed her friendship with Thomas Blakemore in 1948, whom she had briefly met in Hawaii in 1941.  The pair grew close and eventually married in 1954.  Starting in the 1950s, Blakemore began to make screen prints and the occasional collagraph or etching.  They are pleasant enough, but most lack the vitality and raw power of her block prints.  Unfortunately, with one exception, it does not appear that she made any further woodblock prints or linocuts after WWII.
 

 

 Shrine Shadows (1955) by Frances Blakemore

Personal Collection

(woodblock or linoleum block print
printed by a machine using an oil-based pigment)

 Tea Time (c. late 1950s) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery

(silk screen print)

  

 Children's Matsuri (c. early 1960s) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of Martin-Zambito Fine Art

(silk screen print)

Okinawan Dancer (c. early 1960s) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of Martin-Zambito Fine Art

(silk screen print) 

 

 Untitled (c. 1960s) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of Martin-Zambito Fine Art

(silk screen print)

 Japanese Fisherman (c. 1960s)  by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of Martin-Zambito Fine Art

(silk screen print)

Soba-ya (c. 1960s) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery

(silk screen print)

 

 Genkan (1970) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of Martin-Zambito Fine Art

(silk screen print)

Persimmons (1970) by Frances Blakemore

Courtesy of the Henry Art Gallery

(color woodblock print)

For more information about France Blakemore' s life and career, I recommend the book An American Artist in Tokyo: Frances Blakemore < 1906-1997 < by Michiyo Morioka (University of Washington Press, 2007), the source of most of the biographical information in this post.  The chapter in Morioka's book about Blakemore's work designing propaganda leaflets during WWII is particularly fascinating.  Special thanks to David Martin, co-owner of the Martin-Zambito Fine Art gallery in Seattle and author of Territorial Hues: The Color Print and Washington State 1920-1960 (Cascadia Art Museum, 2017), who was friends with Frances Blakemore during her retirement years in Seattle and who graciously answered many questions I had about her work.

Frances Blakemore at the Franell Gallery (c. 1980)

Courtesy of the Blakemore Foundation

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Urushibara, Isaac, and a Jacquin of All Trades

Recently, a couple of new woodblock print designs turned up in the Urushibara family archives that regrettably did not make into the recently-published catalogue raisonné of Urushibara's prints.  I have added them to my prior post about that catalogue, but thought that they might be worth highlighting for those who had already read that post last July.

Passage de la Visitation (aka "Porche sous la neige") (c. 1910-1914) 

by Prosper-Alphonse Isaac; printed by Yoshijiro Urushibara

Personal Collection

(colored woodblock print)

Yoshijiro Urushibara's seal on the verso of the print

The first print is by Prosper-Alphonse Isaac (1858-1924), although there is nothing on the face of the print to indicate that it was designed by Isaac.  However, it bears Yoshijiro (Mokuchu) Urushibara's seal on the verso, which means, at a minimum, that Urushibara would have printed this copy.  A quick Internet image search, however, soon revealed that the Bibliothèque Nationale de France possessed a copy of this print that includes not only Isaac's "I" seal (indicating that it was designed by Isaac) but also Isaac's swastika seal (indicating that the blocks for this print were carved by Isaac).  The absence of Isaac's seals on my copy mostly likely means that it was a printer's proof.

Passage de la Visitation (aka "Porche sous la neige") (c. 1910-1914)

by Prosper-Alphonse Isaac; presumably printed by Yoshijiro Urushibara

Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France

(colored woodblock print)

The Bibliothèque Nationale de France gives the title of this print as "Porche sous la neige" (Porch under the snow), likely a descriptive title.  However, it also gives an alternate title in brackets "Passage de la Visitation."  Another copy of this print is owned by the Musée Départemental Breton in Quimper with the catalogued title of "Passage de la Visitation - Cour in hiver [courtyard in  winter]."  Passage de la Visitation is a tiny lane in the seventh arrondissement of Paris. Not coincidentally, 11 Passage de la Visitation was the address of Isaac's residence in Paris.  It was purchased by Bernard Boutet de Monvel (1881-1949), the French painter, sculptor, engraver, fashion illustrator, and interior decorator in 1924 after Isaac's death.

 

The patio of 11 Passage de la Visitation in 1927, featuring a dining room rotunda built 

by Louis Süe in the Art Deco style with neoclassicism.

Courtesy of Sotheby's 

The patio of 11 Passage de la Visitation circa April 2016

Courtesy of AD Magazine

The other print in the Urushibara family archives required some additional research, as no other copies of this design could be located in an Internet image search.

 
Pélican et grenouille (c. 1910-1914) [#18] by Georges-Arthur Jacquin;

printed by Yoshijiro Urushibara

Personal Collection

(colored woodblock print)

 Yoshijiro Urushibara's seal on the verso of the print with pencil inscription

As with the Isaac print, this copy also bore Urushibara's seal on the version.  It also contained a  pencil inscription on the back of the print which said "No 18  By Jaqui French School."  The only problem was that I was unable to find any artist, French or otherwise, with the name "Jaqui" who made woodblock prints, let alone a woodblock print of a pelican.  Eventually, however, I discovered that there was a French artist with the similar name "Jacquin" who was active in making woodblock prints in the years prior to WWI, namely, Georges-Arthur Jacquin (1851-1932).  Neither the Bibliothèque Nationale de France nor the Musée Départemental Breton appear to own any of Jacquin's prints, and most images I could find of Jacquin's prints were either in the collection of the Petit Palais, Museé des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris or were shown in a profile entitled "Arthur Jacquin, Graveur Sur Bois," written by Maurice Pillard Verneuil for Art et Decoration, Vol. 24 (July 1908), none of which depicted this print.

Georges-Arthur Jacquin's "J" monograms

Undeterred, I continued to look for other museums who might have Jacquin's prints in their collections.  Eventually, I found that the Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA) had over thirty of Jacquin's prints (although frustratingly none are illustrated on-line), which were originally part of Jacques Doucet's "Cabinet d'estampes."  One of the INHA's catalogue entries, however, bore the descriptive title "[Pélican et grenouille]" (pelican and frog), the very subject of this print.  Moreover, the dimensions of the INHA's print were consistent with those of my copy.  The INHA's catalogue also noted that its copy bore the monogram of the artist "J" printed in reserve on a black background as well as the stamp of the artist overprinted in red.  The "J" monogram is only partially discernible on my copy, and then only in hindsight.  The absence of Jacquin's red seal on my copy, though, is entirely consistent with the print being a printer's proof.
 

 [Beach Scene] (c. 1910-1914) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

 Courtesy of Hilary Chapman Fine Prints

(watercolor)

 

Close-up of Jacquin's dedication to Yoshijiro Urushibara

Courtesy of Hilary Chapman Fine Prints

   ,So who was Georges-Arthur Jacquin, who frequently went by the name "Arthur"?  As the title of this piece suggests, he was a jack of all trades, a French painter, decorator, enameller, ceramist, and jewelry designer who also practiced woodblock printmaking and etching.  Born in Fère-Champenoise (Marne), he was a student of Géròme, MM. de Foulongne et Harpignies.  He exhibited at the Salon of 1890, the Salon de la Rose et Croix in 1892 and 1893, and l’Exposition de Chàlons in 1896.

 

Femme de trois quarts au chapeau et à la rose (1884) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

(oil on canvas)

 Box (c. 1900) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

Courtesy of the Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts

(iron mounted on wood, decorated in silver and gilded silver, 

partially enamelled with glass cabochons)

It is not exactly clear when Jacquin took up woodblock printmaking, but Verneuil's July 1908 profile states that Jacquin had "numerous" woodblock prints to his name.  Moreover, the Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts had acquired several of Jacquin's prints in April of 1908.  Since this activity occurred roughly two or more years before Urushibara's arrival in Europe in 1910, this necessarily means that Jacquin learned the rudiments of woodblock carving and printing without any assistance whatsoever from Urushibara.  In fact, as Verneuil relates in my dubious English translation, Jacquin conducted considerable research on his own on how to print with watercolors:

          "It seems very simple to the layman; to print with water, what difficulty can

          there be? This idea changes at the first trials. The difficulties present

          themselves, innumerable, and at first sight, insurmountable. . . .

          It was up to Jacquin to demonstrate and show that ingenuity and patience,

          together with a rare artistic feeling, can overcome these difficulties.  

          Gradually, patiently, he invented this process, unknown to us. He chose, 

          compared the woods for a long time, both from the point of view of their

          grain and that of their porosity, from their love for water.  One by one, he

          discovered his colors, no longer superficial colors, but rather dyes, which

          penetrate the paper and dye it in its mass, giving these transparent tones a 
          depth and velvety which our reproductions can not give an idea.  He sought 
          the best methods of inking and printing wood; the most beautiful, soft, and 
          color-loving papers.  And little by little he redrew to his use a complete and 
          perfect technique, by means of which, sure of his process, he can now freely 
          express his artistic thoughts. 

           From this process in itself, we will hardly speak; it is more, apart from the search

           for colors, a matter of hands and skill. . . . 

           Jacquin possesses it completely, and uses it as master.  And like any artist well in
           possession of his art, he manages to give his prints an aspect of making easy and
           effortless of the most enjoyable.  There is no sense of the multiple searches and
           repeated tests that each requires.  For the color to vibrate, boards were super-
           imposed without the knowledge of the amateur.  He believes that two tones, only 
           two impressions were necessary; error! there were seven, eight.  The result alone
           matters to the artist and the effort is nothing.  Jacquin does not spare his troubles,
           but arrives at the dreamed result."

Calvaire de campagne (1907) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

Courtesy of the Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts

 (colored woodblock print)
 

Les arbres au bord de la mer (1907) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

Courtesy of the Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts
 (colored woodblock print)

As noted above, my copy of Pélican et grenouille bears the number 18 of an unknown edition size.  (The INHA's copy is numbered 9.)  The stated edition sizes for a number of Jacquin's pre-WWI prints are known, and they typically tend to be 80 or 100.  Of course, there is no guarantee that Jacquin ever got around to printing a full edition.  Given the scarcity of Jacquin's prints, I wonder if more than twenty or thirty copies, if that, were ever printed for most designs.

Le Chemineau (c. 1908) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

reproduced in Art et Decoration, Vol. 24 (July 1908)

(colored woodblock print; edition of 100)

Chemineau assis (c. 1908) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

reproduced in Art et Decoration, Vol. 24 (July 1908)

(colored woodblock print)

Alas, the details of Jacquin's collaboration with Urushibara are shrouded in mystery.  I have dated Pélican et grenouille as circa 1910-1914, since Urushibara was frequently in Paris during that time period tutoring Jules Chadel and Prosper-Alphonse Isaac, and active in the Société des Amis de l'Art Japonais.  I doubt, however, that Pélican et grenouille was their sole collaboration, so it is possible that additional Jacquin prints may turn up in time with Urushibara's seals on them.

(Le) Moulin à vent (c. 1908) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

reproduced in Art et Decoration, Vol. 24 (July 1908)

(colored woodblock print; edition of 100)

We do know, however, that Jacquin continued to make prints after the Great War.  One of his prints, "Arbres tordus" (twisted trees), was included in the Société de la gravure sur bois originale (SGBO)'s 1922 catalog.  Urushibara himself exhibited five of his own prints in that 1922 exhibition.  While I cannot completely rule out the possibility that Jacquin's collaboration with Urushibara took place in the twenties, stylistically Pélican et grenouille strikes me as a decidedly pre-WWI design.

Les pins au bord de la mer (1907) by Georges-Arthur Jacquin

Courtesy of the Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts

 (colored woodblock print) 

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A Piece of Wolsky

One of Yoshijiro Urushibara's more elusive collaborators was Milton L. Wolsky (1916-1981).  The recent Chapman-Horner catalogue raisoneé for Urushibara omits him altogether from their biographical appendix, and my own efforts to learn more about this cryptic artist were, at first, similarly unavailing.

Milton L. Wolsky (1955)

Courtesy of the ARTicles Gallery

It turns out there is a very simple explanation why initially I was unable to locate any reference to Wolsky in the literature.  The catalogue raisoneé entry for Urushibara's only known woodblock print based on a Wolsky design ("Hill Town") erroneously names him as "Mitton," not Milton, Wolsky, no doubt based on a misreading of Wolsky's pencil inscription to Urushibara's daughter found on a copy of the print in Urushibara's son's collection.  In time, I came to acquire Ichiro Urushibara's copy of that print, although it was not until several months later that I studied the signature in any detail and came to the conclusion that the signature was that of "Milton" Wolsky.

Inscription:  "To Hideko [Urushibara] - Milton Wolsky"

Personal Collection

So who was Milton Wolsky?  Thanks to an on-line biography posted by Gallery 1516 in connection with their exhibition "Milton Wolsky: A 20th Century Modernist" held in the spring of 2014, I learned that Wolsky was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1916.  He graduated from the University of Omaha, where he studied Depression-era portraiture and fine art painting.  He subsequently studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and later at the Art Students League of New York under the direction of Julian Levi and Hans Hofmann.  After a stint in the Army during World War II, Wolsky lived in New York City from 1946 to 1954, where he was one of the major post-War magazine illustrators.  His work regularly appeared in Time, Life, Redbook, Collier's, McCall's, The American Weekly, and Esquire magazines, among others, and he was a member of the Society of Illustrators.

Brief Holiday (1949) by Milton Wolsky

Courtesy of Gallery 1516

(magazine illustration)

Give Him To Me (1955) by Milton Wolsky
(reproduced in Collier's Magazine (June 24, 1955)

Courtesy of the ARTicles Gallery
(casein on paper)

Wolsky missed the Midwest, however, and in 1954 he purchased "El Paraiso", the J. Laurie Wallace studio and returned to Omaha.  He continued to earn his living with illustrative and commercial art, but his private passion was for contemporary and abstract oil painting.  A fellow in the International Institute of Arts and Letters, he was listed in “Who’s Who in Art” from 1956 until his death.  Wolsky was one of only two Nebraska artists included in the inaugural “Art in Embassy Program”, a program President and Mrs. Kennedy began in 1963, and his work was exhibited by invitation at various museums including Joslyn Art Museum, Rochester Art Museum, Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Walker Art Center, the Smithsonian Institute, and the U.S. Air Force Historical Foundation.  His paintings brought in little income during his lifetime, and he died of cancer in 1981 at age 65.

Astoria Shipyard (1952) by Milton Wolsky

Courtesy of Gallery 1516
(casein on paper)

Triangulars (January 1979) by Milton Wolsky

Courtesy of the ARTicles Gallery
(oil on canvas)

All of this was interesting as far was it went, but it shed no light on Wolsky's connection with Urushibara, nor was there any indication whether Wolsky might have himself made prints at one point in his life.  The subject of Urushibara's "Hill Town" print suggested to me that Wolsky had visited Europe, perhaps Tuscany, and so it was possible that he had met Urushibara in London in the late 1930s before Urushibara was expelled from England in fall of 1940.  As it turns out, however, there was also an opportunity for Wolsky to have met Urushibara in Tokyo circa 1946 when he was stationed in Occupied Japan as a member of the Eight Army Corp of Engineers.  Wolsky's art training was put to use during this time depicting the rebuilding of Japan for the U.S. government, a number of images of which were later published in two books by the military.

Yokohama Shrine (1946) by Milton Wolsky

Courtesy of the ARTicles Gallery
(watercolor on paper)

Patrick Dickey, the Director of Gallery 1516, was kind enough to put me in touch with Norma Hilt, owner of the ARTicles Gallery, the exclusive representative of the Wolsky estate and apparently the source for Gallery 1516's Wolsky on-line biography.  Ms. Hilt graciously searched through her records and, while she could find no reference to Urushibara, she found a reference to watercolor dated 1945 with the title "Town of Cabriès, France" in a list of Wolsky's pre-September 22, 1956 paintings.  This notation contained the illuminating parenthetical "(woodcuts later made in Japan)."  In the column where Wolsky typically indicated who owned his paintings, he simply noted "...? where, ? prints."

Town of Cabriès, France (aka "Hill Town") (1946) 

by Yoshijiro Urushibara (after Milton Wolsky)

Personal Collection

(colored woodblock print)

Since Wolsky never returned to Japan, I think we can safely conclude that Urushibara made his print in 1946, making it Urushibara's final print collaboration with another living artist.  (Urushibara's only other print collaborations after leaving England appears to be his 1940 Japanese portfolio of six earlier Brangwyn prints, most issued in a reduced size.)   Those interested in how well Wolsky (and Urushibara) captured the topography of Cabriès, a town near Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence, can compare the above woodblock print with these contemporary photographs of Cabriès.

Cabriès

Courtesy of Charbela

http://www.map-france.com/Cabries-13480/photos-Cabries.html

 

 Cabriès

Courtesy of www.basic-travel.com

 

Wolsky's Omaha studio, showing his final still life (1981)

Courtesy of Gallery 1516

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