Strawberries

A still life study of strawberries, fitting within Ito's sustained engagement with botanical and fruit subjects. The composition likely centers on a small grouping of ripe strawberries, possibly arranged on a neutral ground or with attendant foliage, allowing the artist to concentrate on the textural contrast between the seed-pitted surface of the fruit and its reflective skin. As an etching, the work depends on bitten lines to model form and establish tonal range, with passages of hatching and cross-hatching defining the rounded volumes of the berries. The intaglio process aligns with the technical sensibility Ito developed during his 1968–1970 studies in Nice, where European traditions of fine printmaking informed his practice. Within his broader body of work—dominated by color mezzotints of camellias, roses, persimmons, and grapes—this print belongs to the strand of intimate, close-observed still lifes that catalog seasonal produce. The choice of strawberries, an early-summer fruit, is consistent with his measured attention to the year's small markers and his preference for modest domestic subjects rendered at close range.