Charles W. Bartlett

1860-1940

A Village Temple, Kashmir

with artist's monogram CWB in lower left with the title, A VILLAGE TEMPLE, KASHMIR, signed in pencil on the bottom margin, Charles W. Bartlett, published by Watanabe in 1919

oban yoko-e 11 by 15 5/8 in., 27.8 by 39.6 cm

Alternate title: A Village Temple Near the Dal Lake. Kashmir

An original mat window inscribed by the artist notes: "Peasants bring flowers to decorate the Temple. Tomorrow is a feast day."

Following the first burst of creativity and production of woodblock prints in 1916, Bartlett and Watanabe continued to work together, struggling with slow correspondences and mailing proofs and corrections back and forth between Tokyo and Hawaii. Interestingly, Bartlett's appreciation of the Japanese woodblock printing process did not extend to a focus on Japanese subjects. In 1919, Bartlett returned to Japan for a short visit which likely facilitated the completion of a new group of woodblock prints limited to Chinese and Indian subjects, including this composition.

In March of the same year, Arthur H. Hahlo & Co Galleries in New York City put on a large exhibition Bartlett's prints and paintings featuring Indian, Japanese and Hawaiian subjects which was accompanied by a catalogue. In the 1921 landmark exhibition of shin-hanga woodblock prints at the Shirokiya department store including Watanabe's entire stable of artists, foreign and Japanese, the Bartlett prints commanded prices that were ten times that of future shin-hanga leaders, Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) and Ito Shinsui (1898-1972).

Reference:
Richard Miles & Jennifer Saville, A Printmaker in Paradise: The Art and Life of Charles W. Bartlett, 2001, pp. 14-17, 47-58, 68-72; illus. p. 107, no. 11
(inv. no. 10-5143)

price: $2,500