Brown, Pieter Irwin (1903 – ?), “Tokyo in Snow”

Notes: In 1937, P.D. Perkins, a Pasadena book and print dealer, compiled a partial list of Brown's prints. This catalogue listed 19 prints and a commentary on Brown's work. Perkins summed up Brown's distinctive style, saying "the strength in his prints lies, perhaps, in his elimination of non-essentials." Like other shin hanga artists, Brown used the Western techniques of perspective and shadowing to create dimensionality and depth. However, he was clearly inspired by the flat areas of color in ukiyo-e prints. Provenance: This example bears the distinctive seal of the celebrated Western collector James D. Tobin. Tobin assembled arguably the world's most important collection of 20th-century Japanese prints. It was dispersed in the 1980s, with a large portion of the collection entering many of the finest institutions.