Early Spring

Early Spring renders the landscape at the moment of seasonal transition — the snow still present in shadowed hollows while the first signs of the new growth push through the warming soil. Hagiwara's treatment of spring's arrival emphasized the quality of light rather than the specific botanical events of the season: the soft, low-angled sun of late February and early March, the sky beginning to show the blue of warmer months above a landscape still essentially winter in its palette. The early spring light was a subject he returned to throughout his career.