COLLECTING THE MASTER:
The Binnie Collection of Hiroshi Yoshida Paintings

New York Asia Week, March 14–22, 2024

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Scholten Japanese Art is pleased to announce our upcoming gallery presentation, COLLECTING THE MASTER: The Binnie Collection of Hiroshi Yoshida Paintings, assembled by the prominent contemporary woodblock printmaker, Paul Binnie.

Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) was a Japanese artist, painter and printmaker, widely known throughout the world for his woodblock printed work. Part of the shin- hanga (lit. ‘new print) movement of the first half of the twentieth century, Yoshida’s prints were produced in the same way as earlier ukiyo-e (lit. ‘pictures of the floating world’); woodblocks would be carved by a specialist artisan following the design of an artist, and then printed in colors by a specialist printer, all under the direction of a publisher, who then undertook to sell the finished product. However, in Yoshida’s case, he eventually employed the carvers and printers directly, acting as his own publisher and even occasionally carving and printing himself.

Yoshida was already a successful and widely recognized painter before he took up woodblock print designing in 1920 at the age of 44, at the request of the influential publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962). The artist produced a small number of prints with Watanabe before starting the production of his own designs in 1925, which he then continued for the next 25 years until his death at the age of 73 in 1950.

Aside from this well-known print career, Yoshida had a very active life as a painter and exhibited in a range of Japanese government-sponsored exhibitions, private art society group shows, and commercial galleries. He began exhibiting his paintings in his early twenties, and in October of 1889 the very independently minded twenty-three-year-old Yoshida embarked on his first trip (of three) to the United States and Europe with his friend and fellow-painter, Nakagawa Hachiro (1877-1922). The young artists managed to arrange several exhibitions, primarily of their watercolors, at museums and galleries in the Midwest and New England to great acclaim. A watercolor included in the exhibition titled Shimo Yoshida (Yoshida Village), which likely dates to shortly after his return to Japan in 1901, illustrates the rural namesake village with a cluster of figures traversing a rocky dirt road with the white conical peak of Mount Fuji in the distance partially obscured by clouds. Yoshida repeated his success abroad with a second trip in 1903-1906 traveling broadly in the states and Europe again.

During these two long trips Yoshida established a working method that continued as his regular practice; he would typically work for several hours on a watercolor or oil painting on location with the landscape subject before him, possibly photographing the view to facilitate finishing the work later in the studio. Many other world trips followed, and he travelled regularly within Japan as well, seeking interesting subjects and atmospheric views. Although there are a few figure paintings from his early career, he was an avid naturalist and mountaineer, and as such, seemed most comfortable with the moods and memories of landscape.

Following the devastation of the September 1, 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that leveled huge areas of Tokyo and Yokohama, Yoshida quickly organized a traveling exhibition to the United States supporting his fellow artists. This trip also allowed him to visit the mountains of the American West and Europe and included a tour of Greece. Two large oil paintings in the Binnie Collection relate to this third trip overseas; Mount Breithorn, and Parthenon Temple, Evening, both of which Yoshida likely completed in the studio after returning to Tokyo in August of 1925.

Never an artist to be limited by categories, Yoshida was an accomplished painter in a variety of modes; excelling in Western-style watercolor and oil painting, while equally comfortable with traditional Japanese painting utilizing ink on silk or paper, a virtuosity which was unusual at a time when artists were expected to choose one or the other. Closely related to watercolor painting, but produced in the studio rather than on site, a large number of scroll paintings exist by Yoshida and these are mostly in ink alone, occasionally with slight color, rarely in full color. The exhibition will include 15 scroll paintings as well as 5 painted folding fans including one which according to family lore he reserved for his personal use.

A natural leader and innovator, Yoshida was arguably one of the most influential artists in his time and among later generations as well, as evidenced by this collection. The Scottish artist and printmaker Paul Binnie (b. 1967) began to build a collection of Yoshida woodblock prints and original paintings and drawings around 1989, when he purchased his first landscape print by the earlier master. In those early days of collecting shin-hanga and related material, prices were reasonable and over time Binnie was able to assemble almost every woodblock print that Yoshida made, numbering over 250 designs. An academically trained painter himself, Binnie was keen to collect oil paintings, scroll paintings, watercolors and drawings, often with a connection to woodblock prints, as his fascination was with Yoshida as both painter and printmaker. Finding inspiration in the collection, in the mid-2000s Binnie embarked on a series of prints which are a direct reference to Yoshida; called Travels with the Master, for which he travels to sites depicted by Yoshida around 80 years previously and designs his own view of the location.

In addition to the scrolls and fan paintings which feature subjects and motifs seen in Yoshida’s printed works, such as boats on the Inland Sea, and views of Mount Fuji, The Binnie Collection of Hiroshi Yoshida Paintings offers two drawings, four watercolors and eight oil paintings, including the original canvases for three of Yoshida’s woodblock prints, Breithorn, Ghats at Benares and New York.

Scholten Japanese Art is located at 145 West 58th Street, Suite 6D, between 6th and 7th Avenues. For the duration of the exhibition, March 14 – 22, the gallery will be open with appointments appreciated, 11 – 5 pm; otherwise by appointment through April 13th.



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Scholten Japanese Art is open Monday - Friday, and some Saturdays by appointment only

Contact Katherine Martin at
(212) 585-0474 or email
[email protected]
to schedule a visit between 11am and 4pm preferably for no more than two individuals at a time.

site last updated
March 19, 2024

Scholten Japanese Art
145 West 58th Street, suite 6D
New York, New York 10019
ph: (212) 585-0474
fx: (212) 585-0475