Ceylon

Ceylon depicts the island's tropical landscape and culture through Bartlett's practiced eye for light, color, and architectural form. Created in 1916, this oban woodblock print belongs to the same body of work as Bartlett's other South Asian prints, produced during or shortly after his extensive travels through the region.

The island of Ceylon, positioned off India's southern tip, offered Bartlett a subject distinct from the subcontinental landscapes he depicted elsewhere. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial presence had layered European architectural elements over the island's ancient Buddhist and Hindu structures, creating a visual environment of unusual cultural complexity. Bartlett's woodblock technique, learned from Japanese craftsmen, gave him a printing method capable of rendering the lush greens and vivid blues of the tropical landscape with a clarity and luminosity that Western printmaking methods of the era could not easily match.