Moonlight of Taj Mahal #4

Date:: 1931
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio

Source:

Typical Price

The Taj Mahal Gardens at Night is among the most sought-after prints from Yoshida's 1931 India series. A Taj Mahal in Moonlight No. 4 sold at Sotheby's for GBP 4,800 (hammer; GBP 4,000, July 2024), and moonlit versions carry an additional premium over daytime variants. The full Taj Mahal suite of six prints is the crown jewel of the India series.

Jizuri (artist-supervised) seal: $3,000–$9,000
Studio/posthumous edition: $800–$2,500

Description

Moonlight of Taj Mahal No. 4 is part of Yoshida's celebrated series depicting the mausoleum at Agra under different conditions of light and time — arguably the most sustained meditation on a single architectural subject in all of [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga). Under moonlight, the white marble appears to glow from within, the surface absorbing and reradiating the indirect light of the night sky. Yoshida visited the Taj Mahal during his 1931 India trip and returned to it obsessively in his prints, each number in the series capturing a different quality of luminescence.