Moorhens
- Date:
- 1929
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Key value factors: Edition order (first Watanabe/Doi printing vs. posthumous reprints) is crucial. Snow scenes, night views, and bijin-ga typically command premiums. Publisher seals and artist signatures authenticate first editions.
Several moorhens occupy a wetland scene in this 1929 color woodblock print, their dark plumage punctuated by bright red bills and frontal shields. Komori Soseki arranges the birds at different distances and angles, some feeding, others alert, creating a slice of observed behavior rather than a posed tableau. The date of 1929 places this print squarely within the golden period of shin-hanga production, when publishers like Watanabe Shozaburo were actively commissioning kacho-e subjects. The color palette is restrained, dominated by the greens and browns of marshland with the birds' red markings providing the only vivid accent. Soseki's eye for the unspectacular rhythms of bird life gives the scene a quiet authenticity.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Moorhens was created by Komori Soseki (小森漱石) in 1929.
Moorhens depicts birds & flowers and rivers & lakes.
