Lilian Miller, An Orange-Sailed Junk of the Han, Korea (Pre-Earthquake)

Notes: SCARCE; pre-earthquake design. Signed, dated and numbered in black ink by the artist: "Copyright - 1920- by Lilian Miller. no. ". Stamped lower right margin: "Lilian Miller. Oriental Woodcuts". Box monogram seal. The paper is printed in a buff color in order to give the entire work an effect of an "antiqued" appearance. Lilian Miller wrote, "The Han is one of the great rivers of Korea and its stately waters are a constant highway for native commerce. Here the junks pass up and down its winding course, laden with ivory bags of rice, these orange-sailed junks sail dreamily down the placid reaches of the Han, looking in the distance like scarlet peonies floating on the green bosom of the river; and when perhaps glimpsed through the branches of a stately pine, one can well understand the reason for the name written in gilt characters on a little shrine sitting on a hill top overlooking the distant hills - "Temple of the Flowering Stream." Miller was visiting her parents in Seoul when the Great Kanto Earthquake struck on September 1, 1923. In the conflagration after the tremor, Miller's personal possessions were destroyed as were many finished prints, their blocks and her studio. Miller would fall seriously ill from the sudden shock of her loss, and produced no art for three years as she recuperated with her parents in Seoul, Korea. Provenance: Acquired directly from a descendant of the L.M. Miller family. This was accompanied with the entire family collection of remaining works; including original paintings, pencil sketches and one of a kind proofs.