Japanese Print by Charles W BARTLETT

Charles William Bartlett (1860–1940) was a British watercolorist and printmaker who collaborated with Tokyo publisher Watanabe Shozaburo to produce [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) prints from approximately 1916 onward. Bartlett supplied original watercolor designs, which Watanabe's skilled craftsmen translated into woodblock form using traditional Japanese carving and printing techniques on [washi](/glossary/washi). The resulting prints have a distinctly hybrid quality: Western compositional sensibility and warm naturalistic color relationships executed in the [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) medium, with all its characteristic properties—flat color fields separated by incised line, [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) atmospheric gradation, and the absorbent washi surface. Bartlett's subjects ranged across Japan, Hawaii, and India, and his prints are noted for their golden-hour light, dense atmospheric color, and the soft visual integration of figure and landscape characteristic of his watercolor training.