Chinese Smoker

Chinese Smoker, recorded on ukiyo-e.org from the Japanese Art Online Database, is one of Seiler's character studies of a single figure absorbed in the quiet ritual of smoking. The choice of subject, a Chinese rather than Japanese sitter, points to the cosmopolitan reach of Seiler's eye in postwar Asia and to the broader interest among mid-century expatriate artists in the multiethnic visual culture of East Asia. The pipe and the smoker have a long pedigree in Japanese printmaking, from Edo-era depictions of leisure in the pleasure quarters to twentieth-century portraits of contemplative laborers, and Seiler's study extends that lineage into the postwar period. The image type, a single figure in a moment of stillness, allowed the printmaker to concentrate on facial structure, the modeling of hands, and the small still-life of the smoking implements without the compositional demands of a multifigure scene. As with Seiler's other character studies, the print would have suited collectors interested in regional types and in the human-scale subjects that distinguished postwar editioned prints from the more theatrical or topographical works of earlier eras. The title is given in English and the work appears to be a stand-alone composition rather than part of a numbered series, consistent with Seiler's apparent practice of producing both serial and individual character studies.