Portrait of Mr. Fritz W. Bilfinger

Fritz W. Bilfinger was a German collector and supporter of Japanese printmaking who acquired significant holdings of sosaku-hanga work and maintained close relationships with artists in Sekino's circle. His portrait here is part of the tradition, common in the sosaku-hanga world, of artist-patron portraiture: the collector rendered in the medium they championed, preserved in the same ink-on-paper that their patronage helped sustain.