1940s Gold-Foiled "Cocks and Cactus" by Ito Jakuchu, , First Edition Swiss Lithograph

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A gorgeous rare gold-foiled First Edition offset lithograph after Vintage painting "Cocks and Cactus" by Japanese artist Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), … Read more A gorgeous rare gold-foiled First Edition offset lithograph after Vintage painting "Cocks and Cactus" by Japanese artist Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), detail on a painting on sliding doors. Gold foil overlay on the background. Comes from a rare First Limited Edition art folio published in the 1940s in Geneva, Switzerland by Albert Skira. Printed on one side. Numbered at the lower right corner: 6. Detailed. Colors are stunning. The gold-foiled background doesn't show on the images, sorry about that. Excellent condition - minor age wear, never framed.

Coming of a well-to-do family of grocers, Ito Jakuchu lived in a large house in the market district of Kyoto, and this picturesque part of the city no doubt stimulated his taste for real, palpable objects, as did the animals and birds he raised in his park. "Many are painters who paint," he said, "but rare are those who represent living beings." The great fire that ravaged Kyoto in 1788 cost him his house and his fortune. He thereupon retired to a monastery where he continued to paint in peaceful seclusion. An acute observer, he succeeded, by an exaggerated stylization, in giving these animals an expression of intense vigor and even majesty. The contrast of vivid colors is heightened by a huge cactus, a token of his curiosity about exotic plants. His expressionism, very unusual in Japan, makes him an isolated figure in the history of Japanese painting and accounts for the renewed interest now being taken in him. See less