P.-A. ISAAC: Barque dans les marais de Saint-Omer - 1912

SOLD

[Small Boat in the Marches around Saint-Omer]

Woodcut printed in colors in the Japanese way, 215 x 309 mm. IFF 3 [2].

Superb impression printed full margins as usual, on Japan paper, with Isaac’s Swastika at left, the red stamp bearing the monogramm of Isaac bottom right and the red stamp of Yoshijirô Urushibara below.

In perfect condition.

In 1908, Prosper-Alphonse Isaac, who had had a strong interest in the Japanese print technique for years, met Yoshijirô Urushibara (1889-1953) in London. Urushibara was then a young engraver working for Shimbi Shoin, the famous art printers in Tokyo. Isaac asked Urushibara to teach him the Japanese technique. Together, they created several wood-engravings, the impressions of which bear both their stamps, like this Barque dans les marais de Saint-Omer. This print is a fine example of Japanese wood-engraving combined with Western landscape painting.

Barque dans les marais de Saint-Omer was featured in the First Exhibition of La Gravure sur bois originale in 1912 at the Pavillon de Marsan. Isaac's prints weren't widely distributed and are very rare nowadays.

Reference: Émilie Vabre, « Prosper-Alphonse Isaac (1858-1924), graveur sur bois à la manière japonaise », in Nouvelles de l’estampe, n°237, p. 11. Japon-Paris-Bretagne, la gravure sur bois en couleurs, exhibition catalog, Musée départemental breton, Quimper, 2012, p. 11.