Winter Lake by Eva Pietzcker - Davidson Galleries

Winter Lake combines two of Pietzcker's recurring subjects: still water and the muted tonality of the cold season. The composition likely arranges a frozen or partly frozen body of water against a backdrop of leafless trees or distant shoreline, with the lake surface providing a horizontal band that splits the image. Mokuhanga is well suited to such subjects because flat water can be printed as broad areas of unmodulated color or with delicate [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations applied with a damp brush at the edge of the block. Pietzcker typically uses a limited palette for winter pieces, restricting herself to grays, blues, and the warm cream of unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) to suggest snow. The print connects to a lineage of Japanese lake views from Hokusai's Lake Suwa through Hasui's Lake Chuzenji, while Pietzcker's interpretation reflects her European training and the Northern temperament of her chosen scenes. Lakes appear frequently throughout her body of work as sites of solitude and stillness.