Flood-gates

 

Frank Morley Fletcher

  1866 - 1949 (biography)

1899  

color woodcut 

7 1/2 x 6 1/8" image 

pencil, lower left "Morley Fletcher"; initialled in block, lower right. 

around 50 

pencil signed, lower left 

Illustrated figure 4.4, page 41, Nancy E. Green, "Frank Morley Fletcher and the Japanese color print", and in 'Second Impressions: Modern Prints and Printmakers Reconsidered', ed. by Clinton Adams (Tamarind Papers, vol.16, 1996), pp. 37-48. 

antique-white Japanese hosho 

published 

artist 

20636 

SOLD

An early print by British printmaker Frank Morley Fletcher who only produced 13 woodcuts. This was done in England before he moved to California after his retirement from Edinburgh College in 1923. "Flood-gates" was done using 5 cherry blocks, carved on both sides, for a total of 10 separate inkings and printings to create the final image. The blocks for this print are at a US museum in the state of New York. When discussing this print Nancy Green, in her essay "Frank Morley Fletcher and the Japanese Color Print" for the Tamarind Papers, 1996, Volume 16, page 41 notes: "Muted colors are often contrasted with saturated bright greens and touquoise; in this he paid homage to Puvis de Chavannes, the French artist Fletcher admired (above all others) for his selection of beautiful tones and colors and for the spiritual harmony found in all his works. Fletcher was also adept at 'bokashi', the careful grading of dark color to light in specific areas within the composition, such as the changing color of the ....sky in 'Flood-gates."