Artist: Paul Jacoulet
Medium: Original Limited Edition Japanese Woodblock Print
Series Title: South Seas
Edition: First State, #36/150 (Kanji Edition) - fewer than 100 impressions completed
Date: 1941
Publisher: The Artist - Privately Published
Reference No.: Miles #79
Size: 18 -1/2 x 14 -1/4 "
Condition: Very fine
Notes:
RARE. A first state, kanji edition (#36/150), which will always display muted colors when compared to later impressions.
This is one of only three prints that do not contain any human figures. Although Jacoulet made hundreds of studies of flowers, birds, insects, and butterflies, he preferred to use them as notes to create appropriately dramatic settings for his psychological portraits. Nevertheless, this work was popular, especially with the numerous butterfly fanciers who were Jacoulet's most enthusiastic correspondents.
The South Seas Series were all created from sketches and paintings completed between 1929 and 1936. As late as 1959, these early works were being carved to produce new prints. Since many were lost in allied bombings during World War II, several of the designs are among the rarest and most desirable of all the artist's oeuvre.