Blue and white
Ai to shiro 青と白
1925
- Medium
- colour woodblock
- Measurements
- 27.5 × 37.5 cm (image) 29.5 × 41.0 cm (sheet)
- Place/s of Execution
- Japan
- Edition
- edition of 100
- Accession Number
- 2020.224
- Departments
- International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by an anonymous donor, 2020
© Estate of the artist - Gallery location
- Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International - About this work
-
Scottish artist Elizabeth Keith spent several years developing this work during her decade living in Japan. A celebration of the Japanese love for the colour blue, the work pays homage to the country’s artistic traditions. The primarily blue colour scheme is a reference to Edo-period aizuri-e woodblock prints. The central figure wears a blue-and-white yukata (summer kimono) while browsing a selection of sometsuke (blue-and-white porcelain). Katsushika Hokusai’s masterpiece The great wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830, hangs in the shop window. The shopfront features indigo-dyed noren curtains and the shopkeeper wears an indigo coat and apron while attending to blue morning glory flowers.