Master of Light and Shadow: Martin Lewis and Japan Noir

Martin Lewis (1881-1962) is one of those rare printmakers who, despite being highly regarded in his heyday, was largely ignored or forgotten by the time of his death, and now is undergoing a resurgence in popularity that would make most of his contemporaries green with envy.  Today, his best prints can sell for in excess of $50,000.  Not too shabby for someone born in Castlemaine, Australia, who left home at age 15, and who essentially taught himself how to make intaglio prints.

[Self-Portrait] (c. 1939) (McCarron #130)

Recorded Impressions: 1 plus an unknown number

 of restrikes printed on an unknown date

Personal Collection (restrike version)

(etching and engraving)

To most people, the name "Martin Lewis" conjures up evocative images of Manhattan street (and rooftop) life and, when the Depression caused him to relocate to Newtown, Connecticut, haunting musings on the New England countryside.  Indeed, only five of Lewis' prints expressly depict interior scenes.  Yet for someone who clearly loved the outdoors, he paid an inordinate amount of attention to the clothes his figures were wearing, often depicting them with far more detail than he ascribed to the buildings that surrounded them.  This was a canny decision on his part, as their clothes would render the figures as individuals and inform their personalities and occupations.  Whether he showed a crowd of people going to or from work or group of young ladies going out for a night on the town, a distinctive mood is evoked.  At the high of his popularity, Lewis's prints were no doubt appreciated for being au courant.  Today, they are appreciated by many as anthropological snapshots of daily life in New York City during those bygone days of Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression that are somehow paradoxically timeless in their appeal.

 

 Windy Day (1932) (McCarron #97)

Recorded Impressions: 22 including 4 trial proofs

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint)

But Lewis is not some mere reporter of fashion.  The clothes worn by Lewis's figures are subtly reflective of the time of the year and the prevailing weather conditions on the day in question.  Nature, in fact, is usually a character all her own in Lewis' prints, whether it be a sunny day at the beach, a blinding rainstorm, or shadowy street corners at night.  What makes Lewis a truly outstanding printmaker, however, is his depiction of light (artificial or otherwise) and shadow through his technical mastery of various printing techniques to create a mood.  Often, particularly in his nocturnes, they anticipate the look of film noir, long before that term had been coined.  There are no gangsters, murderers, or adulterous wives in Lewis' prints, but more than a few of Lewis' women are provocatively dressed (for the time), proto-femme fatales if you will.  The well-lit street corners and store-front sidewalks may be safe, but there are ominous shadows everywhere, shadows that can convey sadness, loneliness, or alienation, that suggest furtive couplings in alleyways, and even some unknown danger lurking around the next corner.

Chance Meeting (1940-41) (McCarron #131)

Recorded Impressions: 105 plus 4 restrikes

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint)

 

 

Spring Night, Greenwich Village (1930) (McCarron #85)

Recorded Impressions: 92 (of an intended edition of 100), including 9 trial proofs

 Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint and sandpaper ground)

Corner Shadows (1930) (second state) (McCarron #83 - II)

Recorded Impressions: 242 including 10 trial proofs

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint and sand ground)

 

Fifth Avenue Bridge (1928) (McCarron #72)

Recorded impressions: 108 including 1 trial proof

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint)

 
While I have long admired Lewis' work, it only about three and a half years ago that I learned that, not only had Lewis lived in Japan for a couple of years, but he had also subsequently designed fifteen largely underrated prints depicting Japanese landscapes or seascapes.  It soon become clear that Lewis' stay in Japan had a profound influence on his development as a artist, one which profoundly influenced the direction of his subsequent prints.

Passing Storm (1919) (McCarron #38)

Recorded Impressions: 55

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(mezzotint)

Certain hallmarks of Lewis' printmaking talent were already well on display prior to his arrival in Japan in 1920.  One need only look at his mezzotint Passing Storm to see that.  Nor can it be said that Lewis' pre-Japan work was devoid of Asian art influence.  Paul McCarron, for example, notes that the asymmetry of his composition for [Moonlit Farm Scene] with its silhouette of the tree branches superimposed over the moon suggests that Lewis was interested in Japanese ukiyo-e prints before his sojourn to Japan.  While it is known that Lewis owned a small collection of ukiyo-e prints, it is unclear when he acquired them.  In any event, when Lewis resumed printmaking in 1925, the influence of Lewis' time in Japan is palpable.

[Moonlit Farm Scene] (c. 1916) (McCarron #19)

Recorded Impressions: 1, although a second impression is known

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(etching and drypoint)

Lewis arrived in Japan in the autumn of 1920, tired of his life as a commercial artist and no doubt eager for a change after a nearly decade-long relationship had ended.  He just missed the English potter and etcher Bernard Leach, who had left Japan about three months earlier after a decade of producing highly idiosyncratic Japanese landscape etchings and largely failing to stimulate the interest of Japanese artists to pursue work in that medium.  Unlike Leach, however, Lewis did not go to Japan to make etchings or to teach etching to the Japanese.  He went to paint.  For those accustomed to Lewis' black and white prints, the bright colors of his paintings will come as somewhat of a shock.

Seki-Mon, Gokei (c. 1920-1921)

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(charcoal and colored pencil)

Gokei (c. 1920-1921)

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(watercolor)

 

Pilgrims, Gokei, Japan (c. 1920-1921)

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(watercolor)

What we see captured in Lewis' Japanese paintings is the Japanese reverence for nature.  We know he spent time in the great cities of Tokyo and Nikko.  But the majority of Lewis' surviving paintings and drawings focus on the natural scenic beauty of the Japanese countryside or coastline.  Among the places he visited were Gotemba, Ajiro, Atami, Hakone, Yoshida, Mito, Kambara, Kankakei Gorge on Shodo Island, Subashiri, Iyo, Omiya-machi, Tomo, and the Inland Sea.

 Yumoto - Hakone (c. 1920)
Courtesy of The Old Print Shop
(watercolor)
\

 Coast off Iyo, Japan (c. 1920)
Courtesy of The Old Print Shop
(watercolor)

Fuji San - Looking Across to Gotemba (c. 1920)

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(oil on panel)

When one looks at Lewis' entire print output, one is struck by the sheer number of prints featuring clouds, rain, or snow.  While I have no evidence to back up my hypothesis, I strongly suspect that Lewis was strongly influenced not only by classical ukiyo-e but also by the early shin hanga prints designed by Kawase Hasui and Ito Shinsui.  Lewis likely first saw their prints when he was in Tokyo and, in the case of Hasui, an acknowledged master in depicting rain or snow in his prints, Lewis likely continued to be exposed to Hasui's landscape prints upon his return to New York City.

Rain on Murray Hill (1928) (McCarron #75)

Recorded Impressions: 110 including 1 trial proof

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint)

Stoops in Snow (1930) (second state) (McCarron #89 - II)

Recorded Impressions: 115 including 8 trial proofs plus an unknown number of restrikes

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint and sand ground)

Rainy Day, Queens (1931) (McCarron #94)

Recorded Impressions: 70 including 6 trial proofs

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint)

While Lewis traveled to Japan intending to establish permanent residency there, in the end his stay lasted less than two years.  He was never able to master the Japanese language, and he was unable to support himself with the sale of his paintings.  It is known that he illustrated a book of Japanese scenery for the English travel firm Nelson's, but I have been unable to locate the existence of any such copies despite having contacted several libraries in England.  After an initial six months spent in Tokyo, a city which Lewis evidently detested, he made his base for the remainder of his time in Japan with a Japanese-Swedish family living in Shoji, near Fujiama.  Lewis painted a sympathetic portrait of a family member, Josephine Hoshimo, at some point during his stay.

 

Portrait of Josephine Hoshimo at Shoji-Ko, Japan (c. 1921-1922)

Reproduced in Martin Lewis Retrospective Exhibition:

April 11-28, 1973 (Kennedy Galleries, 1973)

(oil on canvas)

Lewis left Japan in 1922, resumed his career as commercial artist, and didn't return to printmaking until 1925.   When he did, approximately 70% of the prints he made in 1925 and 1926 were of Japanese subjects (with an additional three Japanese designs made in 1927).  I've reproduced below all of Lewis' Japanese prints, to the extent that images are available, along with extant related paintings or drawings.

I like to refer to these prints as "Japan Noir," harbingers of what just a couple of years later would become Lewis' mature, signature style.  Street Booth, Tokyo, New Year's Eve, for example, is quintessential Lewis, masterfully depicting the illumination and shadows given off from electric light bulbs.  One need only substitute New Yorkers standing in front of a newsstand or a storefront for the Japanese standing in front of a street booth to see where Lewis got his inspiration.   Is it surprising that Lewis could so expertly depict the rain-soaked storm clouds in Shadows on the Bay or the driving wind in Rain, Japan and then go on to detail the savage beauty of a thunderstorm in the middle of downtown Manhattan?  I think not.

Trees at Gotemba (1925) (McCarron #46)

Recorded Impressions: 38 (of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint)

Trees at Gotemba

1 of 4 restrikes printed on September 23, 1980 by Stephen L. Pugsley

Personal Collection

(drypoint restrike)

Trees at Gotemba

Personal Collection

(cancelled plate)

Fishing Boats in the Rain (1925) (McCarron #41)

Recorded Impressions: 41 (of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint)

Beaching of the Boat (1925) (McCarron #42)

Recorded Impressions: 33 (of an intended edition of 60)

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint and sand ground)

The Return (1925) (McCarron #45)

Recorded Impressions: 36 (of an intended edition of 60)

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(drypoint and sand ground)

 

Showers on the Bay (1925) (first state) (McCarron #46 - I)

Recorded Impressions: 23 (total for both states of an 

intended edition of 60), including 1 trial proof

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground)

 

Showers on the Bay (1925) (second state) (McCarron #46 - II)

Recorded Impressions: 23 (total for both states of an 

intended edition of 60), including 1 trial proof

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground)

The Bridge near Nikko (1926) (McCarron #47)

Recorded Impressions: 29 (of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground)

Nakimuzki: Crybaby Mountain, Nikko, Japan (c. 1920-1922)

Reproduced in Martin Lewis Retrospective Exhibition:

April 11-28, 1973 (Kennedy Galleries, 1973)

(watercolor)

Shadows on the Road (1926) (McCarron #48)

Recorded Impressions: 54 (of an intended edition of 60)

Courtesy of the Old Print Shop

(drypoint and sand ground)

Road to Ajiro (1926) (first state) (McCarron #49 - I)

Recorded Impressions: 34 (total for both states of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground) 

Note: McCarron's catalog inadvertently switched the image for "Road to Ajiro" for  "The Coast Road, Izu" and vice-versa.

 Road to Ajiro (1926) (second state) (McCarron #49 - II)

Recorded Impressions: 34 (total for both states of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground) 

Coast at Atami, Izu, Japan (c. 1920)

Personal Collection

(watercolor)

Note: Although McCarron states that the watercolor for "The Bridge at Nikko" is the only instance in which Lewis is known to have used a watercolor as a direct source for a print, this watercolor is clearly the progenitor for "Road to Ajiro" (a print that happens to be inscribed "Atami" in the plate).  Although the perspective is slightly different, the same rock formation is prominently featured in both, albeit reversed in the course of printing the plate.

Rain, Japan (1926) (McCarron #50)

Recorded Impressions: 36 (of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground)

Departure of the Boats (1926) (first state) (McCarron #51 - I)

Recorded Impressions: 17 (total for both states of an intended edition of 50)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and and ground)

Departure of the Boats (1926) (second state) (McCarron #51 - II)

Recorded Impressions: 17 (total for both states of an intended edition of 50)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and and ground)

Homeward Bound (aka Island Sea, Japan) (1926) (McCarron #52)

Recorded Impressions: 23 (of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint)

 

The Coast Road, Izu (1927) (first state) (McCarron #58 - I)

Recorded Impressions: 18 (total for both states of an intended edition of 60)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground) 

See Note above for "Road to Ajiro."   If a reader has an image of the second state to share with me, please contact me.

 

The Coast Road, Izu (1927) (second state) (McCarron #58 - II)

Recorded Impressions: 18 (total for both states of an intended edition of 60)

(drypoint and sand ground)

 

Study for figures in "The Coast Road, Izu" (c. 1920-1921)

Personal collection

(pencil drawing)

Clearing Rain, Evening, Japan (1927) (McCarron #59) 

Recorded Impressions (72 of an intended edition of 100)

Personal Collection

(drypoint and sand ground)

Street Booth, Tokyo, New Year's Eve (1927) (McCarron #60)

Recorded Impressions: 40 (of an intended edition of 100)

Personal Collection

(drypoint)

Shimenawa Seller's Booth, Hongo, Tokyo (c. 1927)

Courtesy of the Detroit Institute of Arts

(pencil drawing)

[Japan: Farm in Center, Two Figures in Center Foreground, Tree at Left] (c. 1925-1927)

Note:  McCarron lists in his appendix eight unidentified plates that are attributed to Martin Lewis.  Most are indecipherable due to a thick coating of wax or to corrosion, but one cancelled plate is said to clearly depict a Japanese farm scene.  It is conceivable that impressions taken from this plate could turn up one day.

In addition to his Japanese prints, late in his career Lewis made two figurative prints of Polynesian women.  I have not found any evidence that Lewis returned to the Pacific Rim after his twenties sojourn to Japan.  The dates of these prints suggest that he might have traveled sometime shortly after the end of WWII, although his financial situation at the time makes this rather doubtful, particularly as he never returned to visit family members in Australia.  Were these women he met in New York City?  Were these prints based on sketchbook drawings made decades earlier?   We may never know the answer with any certainty.

Negro Girl's Head and Sky with Moon (aka Polynesian Profile) (1947) (McCarron #137)

Recorded Impressions: 8 including 2 trial proofs

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(mezzotint)

Polynesian Girl - Head (1947) (McCarron #139)

Recorded Impressions: 4 including 2 trial proofs

Courtesy of The Old Print Shop

(mezzotint)

The good news for collectors is that Lewis' Japanese subjects remain today some of the most affordable of all of Lewis' prints.  While not quite as cheap as they were a decade ago, they remain relative bargains for the money, and of a quality that is on par with American designs that easily sell for ten or more times as much.  Whether they or Lewis' other prints will continue to increase in value is anyone's guess, but they should be welcome additions to any serious print collector's collection.

[Self-Portrait with Etching Equipment] (c. 1953) (McCarron #145)

Recorded Impressions:  Although only 1 impression was recorded, 

the Old Print Shop says that seven impressions have been located so far.

Personal Collection

(roulette and drypoint)

For more information about Martin Lewis' life and work, I recommend The Prints of Martin Lewis: A Catalogue Raisonné by Paul McCarron (M. Hausberg, Bronxville, New York 1995).  A large number of Lewis' paintings and drawings can also be found on websites of the Detroit Institutes of Arts and The Old Print Shop in New York City, which handles the Lewis estate.

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Kakunen's Lost Yosemite Print

About five months ago, I drafted a post about the California woodblock prints of Kakunen Tsuruoka with the assistance of the Kakunen's grandson, Doug Tsuruoka.  Coincidentally, around the same time, my friend Katherine Martin, who runs the Scholten Gallery in New York City, had been in contact with one her clients, Mrs. Haruno Tsuruoka, the wife of Kakunen’s son Shotaro (Doug Tsuruoka's uncle).  Katherine Martin acquired from her a preliminary watercolor for one of Kakunen's prints and some process material that she knew I would be interested in that immediately came in handy to further flesh out my post on Kakunen.  Sadly, Mrs. Tsuruoka passed away shortly after my post went on-line.

Haruno and Shotaro Tsuruoka (c. late 1940s)

Courtesy of Doug Tsuruoka

Recently, a heretofore unknown Kakunen woodblock print was discovered among the materials in Mrs. Tsuruoka's estate.  It depicts Half Dome, a 4,700+ foot granite crest at the eastern end of Yosemite National Park.  According to Doug Tsuruoka, Kakunen frequently took his family to Yosemite in his old Ford in the years before WWII, where he created pencil sketches and plein air watercolors.  This print was to be the first of a projected series of woodblock prints of Yosemite.

Half Dome After Rain, Yosemite National Park 

(Ugono Half Dome, Yosemite kokuritsu koe)

Personal Collection

(colored woodblock print)

Interestingly, the date printed in kanji in the left margin of the print reads "Sen-kyuhyaku-sanjuroken-nen, rokugatsu shasei," which translates to "1936, 6th month, sketched."  Presumably this is the date of original watercolor sketch on which this woodblock print was based.  The print itself, however, bears Kakunen's handwritten notation "1941 This is the only copy."

Katherine Martin believes this to be a test print, and I have to agree with her.  For example, there is an uncleared black line in the top margin.  There is also a small registration problem along the upper right edge of the upper tree trunk, and the printing runs into the margins at various points, most noticeably with the tree limbs in the upper left margin.  These carving and printing flaws, combined with Kakunen's handwritten notation, leads one to safely assume that this design never advanced into production.

Half Dome, Yosemite Valley

from The Mercury News (August 24, 2011)

Why was this print abandoned?  If it was in fact made in 1936, then it was likely printed around the same time as Kakunen's "San Francisco City Hall in Night Fog" print, and perhaps was Kakunen's first woodblock print.  If so, I can only assume that Kakunen was not happy with the design.  However, it is more likely that it was printed in 1941, making it Kakunen's final woodblock print.  While Kakunen still may not have been satisfied with the print, the most plausible explanation for the abandonment of this design would be one of timing.  Japan's militaristic expansion into China and other countries in Asia and in the Pacific had been underway for several years by that point, stirring increasingly anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States and depressing interest in and sales of Japanese art.  Moreover, if the test print had been made in late 1941 (and I suspect it was), then the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the Tsuruoka family's subsequent relocation would have made completion of this print impossible.
 

 Cropped black and white photograph of a 

portrait in oils of Kakunen Tsuruoka by Abel Warshawsky

Courtesy of Hanga.com from the Collection of Doug Tsuruoka

Kakunen's Half Dome print reminds me of woodblock prints by such contemporary print designers as Ito Yuhan and Tsuchiya Koitsu, all of which owe a perspective debt to Hiroshige.

Mt. Fuji from Taganoura Bay (c. 1930s) by Ito Yuhan

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(colored woodblock print)

 

Lake Yamanaka (1930) by Tsuchiya Koitsu

Courtesy of the Japanese Art Open Database

(colored woodblock print)

 And, of course, the most prolific landscape print designer of the period, Kawase Hasui:

Clearing After a Snowfall on Mt Fuji (Tagonoura Beach) (1932) by Kawase Hasui

Courtesy of the Omhi Gallery

(colored woodblock print)

The subject matter of Kakunen's print may have also been influenced by the prints of another Japanese artist, Chiura Obata (1885-1975).  Obata emigrated to the United States two years earlier than Kakunen and also settled in the San Francisco Bay area.  While it is likely that the pair were acquainted with each other, I have not been able to confirm that two in fact ever met.  Like Kakunen, Obata and most of his family were interned during WWII (albeit in a different camp).  Although primarily a painter and a professor at Berkeley, Obata designed a series of woodblock prints in 1930, the majority of which featured scenes of Yosemite National Park.

Chiura Obata (1944), photographed by Hikaru Iwasaki

Courtesy of the University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library

While Obata never made a print of the Half Dome, he did produce at least one watercolor featuring this Yosemite landmark.

Half Dome (1937) by Chiura Obata

reproduced in Obata's Yosemite: The Art and Letters of Chiura Oabata

from His Trip to the High Sierra in 1927 (Yosemite Association 1993)

(sumi and watercolor on paper)

Several of Obata's Yosemite prints, however, feature a tall tree trunk in the foreground, usually with some Yosemite mountain backdrop.

Lake Mary, Inyo National Forrest (1930) by Chiura Obata

Courtesy of Hanga.com
 (colored woodblock print)

 Life and Death, Porcupine Flat (1930) by Chiura Obata

Courtesy of Hanga.com
 (colored woodblock print)

 

   Eagle Peak Trail (1930) by Chiura Obata

Courtesy of Hanga.com
 (colored woodblock print)

 

  Upper Lyell Fork, Near Lyell Glacier (1930) by Chiura Obata

Courtesy of Hanga.com
 (colored woodblock print)

As can be seen, Obata's prints are very different in look and feel from Kakunen's prints, no doubt in part due to the fact that Obata used Takamizawa's carvers and printers whereas Kakunen used Watanabe's carvers and printers, but mainly because their painting styles were different.  Kakunen's Yosemite print has a very traditional Japanese sensibility to it.  The Half Dome could easily have been replaced with Mt. Fuji without changing the tranquil mood of the scene.  Obata's Yosemite prints, however, focus more on the natural wildness of the park, straddling the divide between realism and expressionism in the process.  There is also an undercurrent of loneliness and alienation in Obata's prints that is missing from Kakunen's more contemplative vision.  This, however, would later show up in Kakunen's internment camp paintings.  In light of those paintings, one can only wonder in what direction Kakunen's prints might have gone if he had continued to design woodblock prints after WWII, particularly ones depicting Yosemite Valley.

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