River boat landing in mist

Catalog note / 解説

This watercolor on paper is so subtle it is almost unreal! I have attempted to capture it as best I could with the camera, but it does the work scant justice. It measures app. 21? x 27? in its original hand carved and gilt Arts and Crafts frame; 15? x 20 1/8 painting alone and is signed/dated lower right Yamada Baske 1922. The artist, whose style merges early 20th century impressionism with the subtle and gestural aesthetic of Japanese brush painting, has created a hushed and otherworldly depiction of a fogbound dock n the early morning light. You cannot discern them in the photographs, but Baske has uses subtle shifts in the shades of white to ethereally delineate the shapes of sailing…