Above the Old Bridge, Ipswich, or Little Venice

Arthur Wesley Dow

ca. 1893–95 · Color woodcut · Drawings and Prints

Part of a series titled "Along Ipswich River," this upright composition echoes Japanese pillar prints and reflects the artist's study of Hokusai and Hiroshige. Dow was one of the first Americans to master Japanese woodblock printing techniques, wedding an admiration for Oriental aesthetics with an English Arts and Crafts sensibility. He called his woodcuts "color themes," and they demonstrate his devotion to Eastern concepts of line, color, and notan–the balance of light and dark. He executed the entire printmaking process by hand, carving and inking the blocks and then printing them sequentially on damp mulberry paper. In this case he uses a linear key block to pull elements together, but often evokes landscape forms simply by juxtaposing color shapes.

Artist

Arthur Wesley Dow

Date

ca. 1893–95

Medium

Color woodcut

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. W. L. Putnam, 1942