"Once Upon a Time"

Shirley Russell

The majority of Russell's color woodcuts were done between 1935 and 1936, designed by her and printed and published by Watanabe. At the time, she was visiting parts of Asia for the first time, including Japan, and was introduced to the important color woodcut publisher by fellow artist Charles Bartlett. Watanabe would publish at least twelve of Russell's color woodcut designs (mostly florals and landscapes) though in total Russell had created at least sixteen. It is possible that Watanabe simply did not record some of these works in his studio notebooks.

This image of two wooden dolls of classic early 20th century design appears at first to be an anomaly. However, according to the Isaacs Art Center biography on Russell, she also painted a series of oil still lifes featuring dolls; thus, the subject is not entirely out of her wheelhouse.