The title's arithmetic precision—nineteen cherries and one—suggests a composition structured around enumeration, a characteristic Hamaguchi strategy for organizing still-life subjects. Rather than a conventional pyramidal fruit arrangement, Hamaguchi typically scattered individual fruits across a horizontal field, each cherry a distinct globe with its own stem and highlight, so that counting becomes part of the viewing experience. The 'one' of the title may occupy a separate position from the group, isolated in a way that charges the numerical distinction with visual meaning. The mezzotint process was well suited to this kind of serial object: each cherry required the same burnishing operation—scraping a bright highlight from a roughened copper ground—but slightly varied by position and angle so that no two fruits are identical. The stems, rendered as fine scratched lines in the plate, provide delicate linear structure across an otherwise tonal composition. Works like this demonstrate Hamaguchi's distance from expressionistic printmaking: his subjects are observed, counted, and placed with systematic care rather than gestural spontaneity.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Nineteen Cherries and One was created by Yozo Hamaguchi (浜口陽三).
Nineteen Cherries and One uses Mezzotint, on woodblock print.
Nineteen Cherries and One depicts still life and food & drink.
