Soken Landscape Picture Album (Soken sansui gafu) : [volume 2]

Yamaguchi, Soken, 1759-1818 · 1818 · Kyoto: Kamisaka Kanbei 上阪勘兵衛 · 13 pictures

A Japanese landscape picture album of woodblock-printed pages issued in Kyoto in 1818 by the painter Yamaguchi Soken (1759-1818) and published by Kamisaka Kanbei, meant for artists and students copying scenic models. The pages show spare ink landscapes with pines, mountains, mist, terraced hillsides, thatched farm houses and small figures on paths, drawn in clean outline with light grey wash. A designer could take their economical line work, layered mountain silhouettes and generous white space as a model for minimal landscape motifs.

Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art · No known copyright restrictions · More from this library