The Acropolis Ruins at Night
- Date:
- 1925
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 27.4 × 41.9 cm
- Publisher:
- Yoshida Studio
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Acropolis Ruins at Night sold for $900 at Artelino (2012) in what was likely a studio impression; jizuri examples achieve considerably more. The European series is Yoshida's most valuable, with record prices set at Mainichi Auction ($167,144 for Lugano, 2024) and major London houses.
The Acropolis Ruins at Night presents the Parthenon and the sacred hill of Athens under darkness — one of Yoshida's most ambitious European nocturnes, made during his 1925 Western tour. The ancient limestone of the Acropolis takes on a ghostly luminosity under moonlight or artificial illumination, its ruined columns simultaneously documenting historical loss and asserting architectural permanence. Yoshida translates this profoundly Western subject into the Japanese woodblock medium with complete compositional authority, the layered blue-blacks of his nocturne achieving an atmospheric depth worthy of the ancient site.
Woodblock print
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
The Acropolis Ruins at Night was created by Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田博) in 1925.
The Acropolis Ruins at Night was published by Yoshida Studio (1925).
The Acropolis Ruins at Night depicts night scenes.
The Acropolis Ruins at Night measures 27.4 × 41.9 cm (Oban format).
