Lilies 1900 - 1930

Ohara Koson made this woodblock print of lilies sometime between 1900 and 1930. The process itself is part of the beauty here, the way the color is laid down in flat planes, one on top of another to create a full image. I can almost feel the grain of the wood in this print, the texture comes right through. The colors, pale blues and greens with the bright white of the lilies, give me a feeling of calm. It’s amazing how the simple act of layering color can make something feel so alive. Look at the way each petal on the main flower is outlined with these very delicate lines, it’s a drawing, but it’s also so much more than that. The way that those lines come together to define the shape, it feels like you could almost touch it. Artists like Hiroshige come to mind, but Koson’s flowers seem a little less romantic, and a little more real. It’s just a conversation, you know, artists responding to each other across time.