$500–$4,000. Common prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Matsubara's bold black-and-white prints are distinctive and sought after. Larger formats command premiums.
This woodblock print from the Showa period depicts Boston Common, the oldest public park in the United States, a subject that reflects Matsubara's long residence in the Boston area after emigrating from Japan. The Common's broad lawns, mature elms, and iron fencing offered Matsubara a distinctly American landscape to interpret through the Japanese mokuhanga technique. The result is a cultural hybrid: a New England park rendered with the water-based pigments, handmade paper, and carved cherry-wood blocks of the Japanese woodblock tradition. Matsubara's bold, often high-contrast compositions transform the park's pastoral character into something more graphic and immediate than a photograph or plein-air painting could achieve. The print belongs to a body of Boston-area subjects that document Matsubara's adopted city with the fresh eyes of an artist working between two cultures.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Boston Common, Shôwa period, was created by Naoko Matsubara (松原直子).
Boston Common, Shôwa period, depicts urban scenes, trees, and travel scenes.
