Picnic (After a French painting)
by Asada Benji
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Art of Japan
Description
Asada Benji's interpretation of a French painting subject — likely a picnic scene drawn from the Impressionist tradition of the déjeuner sur l'herbe — reveals his engagement with Western artistic sources alongside his shin-hanga landscape practice. Osaka in the early Showa period was a cosmopolitan city with strong cultural exchange with the West, and print artists working there had access to Western art through reproductions and exhibitions. His woodblock translation of a French picnic would have navigated the productive tension between two very different pictorial traditions.
More Prints by Asada Benji
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Picnic (After a French painting) was created by Asada Benji (浅田弁治).
Picnic (After a French painting) depicts landscapes, figures, and daily life.