Jacoulet Paul Chamorro Woman Rainbow Series Red

This woodblock print by Richard Steiner references Paul Jacoulet, the French-born artist who spent most of his life in Japan and created exquisitely detailed color woodblock prints of Pacific Island peoples. The title specifically mentions the Chamorro Woman subject from Jacoulet's Rainbow Series in red, suggesting that Steiner created a response to or reinterpretation of one of Jacoulet's most celebrated compositions. Jacoulet's Chamorro portraits depicted indigenous women of Guam and the Mariana Islands with meticulous attention to their jewelry, textiles, and facial features. Steiner's engagement with this specific Jacoulet work creates a layered artistic conversation: an American mokuhanga artist responding to a French artist's Japanese woodblock portrait of a Pacific Islander. The print raises questions about cultural exchange, artistic lineage, and the woodblock medium's capacity to travel across geographic and ethnic boundaries while retaining its technical integrity.