Changgyong Palace

Date:: 1937
Medium:: Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Format:: Oban
Dimensions:: 26.7 × 40.3 cm
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio
Source:: Minneapolis Institute of Art

Typical Price

From Yoshida's later career (1935–1950), these prints show his technical mastery at full maturity. Later-decade prints slightly trail peak-period 1920s works at auction, but jizuri impressions of desirable subjects still command strong prices. Standard jizuri Japanese landscapes follow the dealer benchmark of approximately $2,149; Sacred Bridge, Nikko (1937) sold for $800 at Schmidt's Antiques for a pencil-signed example.

Jizuri (artist-supervised) seal: $1,200–$3,500
Studio edition (no jizuri): $600–$1,800
Posthumous/family workshop reprint: $250–$700

Description

Changgyong Palace (Changgyeonggung) in Seoul — one of the Five Grand Palaces of the Joseon dynasty — was the subject of Korean travels Yoshida undertook in 1937. The palace's distinctive green-roofed buildings and formal gardens are rendered in the crisp light characteristic of his architectural subjects, the Korean court style compared implicitly with the Japanese castle and temple subjects he depicted elsewhere. The print reflects the complex cultural and political dimensions of Japanese artists working in colonial Korea.