Katherine Jowett

 

Alley in Peking, 1930

Woodblock Print  
11.9 x 7.5 in

Description: Little is known about Katherine Jowett , an American artist who produced detailed studies of Beijing’s(Pekings)architectural beauties in the early to mid-20th century. Learning mokuhanga from artist Bertha Lum, another western émigré from America and a small contingent of these artists in China, she was a proponent of the shin-hanga style of woodcut printing.Some of her works are rumoured to have been the only Western art pieces to be displayed in Mao Tse-Tung’s personal chambers. Unlike traditional woodblock prints, Jowett created linoleum cuts with many layers of oil based pigment and did not use a keyblock to outline her design. (Even some contemporaneous Japanese woodblock print artists like Ito Yuhan were starting to dispense with the use of a keyblock to give prints the softer look of watercolors.) There are estimated to be two dozen designs by her, whih are rarely found. A number of her works were acquired in 1940 by Robert O. Muller, a prolific collector of Asian art.

Issued: 1930's

Condition: very fine color, state and condition, printed in oil based inks on fine laid paper

Signed: hand signed Katherine Jowett in pencil,lower margin

Publisher: self-carved and printed

Series: China