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Elizabeth Keith

1887 - 1956

Bridge Soochow by Elizabeth Keith
 

Bridge Soochow   1924

  Original woodcut, printed in colours.
Signed and titled in pencil.
Ref: Miles 9; Yokohama Museum of Art exhibition 1996, item 125.
S 278 x 396 mm; I 256 x 378 mm
SOLD
 
Original Elizabeth Keith woodcut, printed in colours.

Early proof impression, a very rare example before the heavy diagonal lines indicating rain were added across the whole of the key block. Good impression printed with considerable grey inking to give the effect of the dull showery day which Elizabeth Keith sought to achieve. Signed proof with good unfaded colours, printed in tones of blue, yellow, brown, pink, green and grey inks.

Soochow, now known as Suzhhow City, was the setting for a number of Elizabeth Keith’s finest colour woodblock compositions. A centre of the silk trade in Jiangsu Province, not far from Shanghai, Soochow was a treaty port at the time of Elizabeth Keith’s visit. A famous garden city, known as ‘Earthly Paradise’, it lies on the Grand Canal near Tai Lake and its streets are interspersed with many canals crossed by bridges such as that depicted in Elizabeth Keith’s woodcut.

On firm cream Japan paper with margins, as issued. Sheet discoloured verso only, otherwise very good original condition.