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Hi. My grandmother acquired this what I think is a woodcut in probably the 1930's or 40's. Any help identifying artist or its significance is appreciated. Pic attached.

When I try to blow up the picture, the signature goes to crap. I am pretty sure that it is Utagawa Toyokuni I. It would have been printed circa 1800. The condition makes me think that it may be a repro. I wasn't able to find a known original for comparison.

If you have the image size and a closeup of a portion of the picture, it might help to determine originality.

Cheers,
Stan

Thank you Stan. It is 14.25 inches by 10.5 inches. I have attached 3 pics.

I'll stick with my original call that the artist is Utagawa Toyokuni I. The paper looks like it might be too new to be an original. If you hold the paper up to the light do you see chain marks (horizontal and vertical striations) in the paper? See an example of chain marks in a print from our collection below.

It is a little hard to do an accurate assessment from this far away.

Cheers,
Stan

Hi Stan:

Held up to the light it definitely has what you call chain marks. Thanks for your help on this.

It looks like it is an original. Nice!

Cheers,
Stan

In case you are interested, here, and in the link below, is some information on paper making for Japanese prints and chain lines:

https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/topics_faq/faq_making_a_print.html

Cheers,
Stan

URL Title :Chain Lines

thanks for your help and interest on this Stan.

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