Nasturtium
- Date:
- 1953
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Dimensions:
- 40.5 × 27.5 cm
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Key value factors: Edition order (first Watanabe/Doi printing vs. posthumous reprints) is crucial. Snow scenes, night views, and bijin-ga typically command premiums. Publisher seals and artist signatures authenticate first editions.
Nasturtium vines trail across the composition, their round, shield-shaped leaves creating a pattern of overlapping circles while the trumpet-shaped flowers provide bursts of warm color. Yoshida's 1953 woodblock print in ink and color on paper captures the plant's sprawling growth habit with lines that convey the stems' winding paths. Nasturtiums (kinrenka in Japanese) were introduced to Japan from South America and became popular garden plants for their vigorous growth and edible flowers. Yoshida uses the plant's natural tendency to fill space as a compositional strategy, allowing tendrils and leaves to push toward the print's edges. The flowers' color, ranging from pale yellow to deep orange-red, is built through successive layers of printed pigment.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Nasturtium was created by Fujio Yoshida (吉田ふじを) in 1953.
Nasturtium depicts birds & flowers and still life.
Nasturtium measures 40.5 × 27.5 cm.
