“Winter Landscape”, woodblock print. (Open Access image, courtesy Met Museum, JP554.)
Welcome back to winter in art with this beautiful and serene landscape by Japanese artist Keisai Eisen (1790-1848).
Eisen was a ukiyo-e artist: a period of art from the late seventeenth to late nineteenth centuries that showed contemporary affairs and fashions. It was full of romance, vitality and hedonism, and showed the transitory nature of modern life.
Though this winter landscape is very different, Eisen was known for bijinga, his prints of beautiful women, and was often titled ‘the decadent’. He was a larger than life character and could mostly be found drunk in brothels and later owned one of his own.
Vincent Van Gogh was a real fan of Eisen’s work and acquired lots of his woodcuts.
Read more:
Read more about ukiyo-e art here, Van Gogh’s fascination with Eisen here and Eisen’s work here.
History Lizzie 
This reminds me of the evocative landscapes Miyazaki conjures up for his Studio Ghibli films, as in, say, Kiki’s Delivery Service. Combined with the director’s live of planes and flight I suppose it’s only to be expected that aerial views like this winter landscape will feature heavily.
“live of planes”… 😬
“love of planes” #bloodypredictivetext third time lucky
That’s so interesting! Studio Ghibli films have been on my list for a while, I really need to start watching!
You must! For dark days like these go for films like ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service,’ ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ and the superlative ‘Spirited Away’.
If you have Netflix I think they’re all on there.