Artist: Elizabeth Keith
Medium: Original Japanese Woodblock Print
Series Title: China Series
Edition: First State - Pencil Signed
Date: 1924
Publisher: S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Reference No.: Miles #11
Size: 13 x 16 " (over-sized)
Condition: Very fine
Notes:
Signed and titled in pencil by the artist. The early state of the artist's most sought-after design. Variations in this impression are most noticeable when comparing the colors in the sails of the junk boats and gradation of tones in the hillside. Please note that the colors in the second (close-up) photo reflect the true colors of this example. The main photo, taken with a digital camera displays muted colors and is only included to show the entire print.
The horizontal dai-oban composition features traditional Chinese junk boats floating peacefully in the dark harbor foreground. Towering directly behind the bay is the dark, imposing mass of Victoria Peak, acting as a monumental shadow dividing the dark sky from the reflective water. Tiny, brilliant yellow and white pinpricks of light emerge from houses dotted up the mountainside and along the shore. These lights trail delicate, bleeding reflections across the rippling, dark blue water. What makes this print incredibly desirable to collectors is the sheer level of skill required by Watanabe’s artisans to ink the blocks. To capture a convincing night sky and the massive depth of the mountain, the printers had to execute flawless, hand-wiped color gradations. The deep indigos, charcoals, and midnight blues shift seamlessly across the paper. Creating the luminous yellow halo effect around the small harbor lights required highly precise, soft layering of ink that few printers could master consistently.
The thriving island of Hong Kong was for many years the one remaining jewel in the crown of British colonialism in the Far East. Hong Kong was a natural destination for the Scottish born artist Elizabeth Keith as it was the powerful Scottish trading companies which ruled supreme in Hong Kong after the island and adjacent territory had been ceded to British rule following the Opium Wars. Elizabeth Keith’s superb color woodcut image has captured the very essence of this thriving island. Hong Kong was always as much alive by night as by day and Elizabeth Keith’s image shows it at its most picturesque. In the foreground, Chinese junks mingle with the western steamships moored in Hong Kong harbour. The city rises above the bay up towards Victoria Peak. A myriad of lights twinkles in the deepening dusk, their light reflected on the rippled waters of the bay. The rising moon has created an aura of cool white light from behind the skyline as the onset of night approaches. "Hong Kong Harbour" is a fascinating depiction of this prosperous city, long before the skyscrapers of glass and steel lined its waterfront – this magnificent woodcut remains one of the great depictions of Hong Kong as it once was.