Blue Robe

Blue Robe departs from the bare-figure studies elsewhere in the group by introducing drapery — a robe that wraps or falls across the body, providing a contrasting tonal field against skin and hair. The dominant blue establishes a chromatic register that recalls the deep indigos and Prussian-blue passages of nineteenth-century mokuhanga, where bero-ai (Berlin blue) transformed the palette of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) in the work of Hokusai and Hiroshige. Lyon's process for color prints of this kind typically involves multiple registered blocks, one or more carrying the color field and others carrying the tonal halftone that models the figure; all are inked with water-based pigments and printed by hand on dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) using a [baren](/glossary/baren). The robe's folds afford passages where [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation can be deployed to suggest the fall of cloth. As a clothed counterpart to the unclothed studies in the same body of work, Blue Robe demonstrates Lyon's range across the figurative tradition the series engages.