Nocturne
by Ansei Uchima
- Date:
- 1955
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
Nocturne (1955) is a color woodblock print that borrows its title from music — specifically the piano nocturnes of Chopin and Field, compositions written "for the night" that combine lyrical melody with introspective mood. The musical nocturne emerged as a Romantic genre in the early nineteenth century, and its application to visual art (most famously by Whistler, who titled his Thames paintings "Nocturnes" in the 1870s) established a cross-medium tradition that Uchima extends into woodblock printing. The print translates the nocturne's essential qualities — sustained tone, gentle modulation, and the intimacy of nighttime solitude — into the visual language of color and carved form.
More Prints by Ansei Uchima
More Night Scenes Prints
Evening in East Africa
Woodblock print
Evening Shower at Teradomari (Teradomari no yau), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
Evening Moon at Nakanoshima, Sapporo (Sapporo Nakanoshima no yuzuki), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)"
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nocturne was created by Ansei Uchima (内間安瑆) in 1955.
Nocturne depicts night scenes and abstract.