Two Lakes
- Date:
- 1921
- Medium:
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Victoria and Albert Museum
$1,000–$8,000. Common subjects: $1,000–$2,500. Key value factors: Phillips is highly collected in Canada. Mountain and lake scenes are most popular. Japanese-technique prints are more valued than his etchings.
Created in 1921, this print presents a landscape defined by two bodies of water, their surfaces occupying separate planes within the composition. The presence of two lakes in a single view is characteristic of the Canadian Shield and Manitoba's lake country, where glacial action carved thousands of depressions into the bedrock, leaving a landscape punctuated by water at every turn. Walter J. Phillips positions the viewer at a vantage point, perhaps a ridge or hilltop, from which both lakes are visible, separated by a strip of forested land. The woodblock technique suits this layered landscape, with each plane of water, forest, and sky carved and printed as a distinct color field. The two lakes may reflect different sky conditions or sit at different elevations, giving each a distinct color character: one might appear steel blue while the other catches warmer light from a different angle.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Two Lakes was created by Walter J. Phillips in 1921.
Two Lakes depicts landscapes and rivers & lakes.
