Khyber, 1916

Khyber, 1916 records the legendary mountain pass that connects present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan, a narrow corridor through the Safed Koh mountains that has served as the principal route between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent for millennia. Armies, traders, and travelers from Alexander the Great to the British Raj passed through this gap, making it one of the most storied geographic features in the world.

Bartlett's oban woodblock print captures the dramatic topography of the pass, where sheer rock walls rise on either side of the narrow road. The barren, sun-bleached landscape of the Khyber region required a palette entirely different from the lush greens of his Japanese or Hawaiian subjects: dusty ochres, harsh whites, and the deep shadows cast by high rock faces under intense sunlight. This print represents one of the most geographically remote subjects in the entire woodblock print tradition, extending the medium into terrain no Japanese artist had depicted.