Daybreak
by Ito Shinsui
- Date:
- 1937
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 27 × 40.2 cm
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Edition:
- Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
Description
The transition from night to dawn is the subject of this 1937 landscape, which captures the particular quality of light at daybreak when darkness has retreated but full color has not yet arrived. Shinsui's use of graduated bokashi printing, moving from deep indigo at the horizon through pale gold to an open sky, creates an atmosphere of suspended stillness. The composition belongs to the mature phase of his landscape work in the late 1930s, when he turned repeatedly to the poetic potentiality of transitional light.
More Prints by Ito Shinsui
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Daybreak was created by Ito Shinsui (伊東深水) in 1937.
Daybreak uses Bokashi, on woodblock print, ink and color on paper.
Daybreak was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1937).
Daybreak depicts landscapes.
Daybreak measures 27 × 40.2 cm (Oban format).