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Product description
Exquisite pair of prints made in the 1930s by Elyse Ashe Lord (1885 - 1971), a British artist who created vibrant paintings inspired by the literature and art of the Far East, all influenced by the prevailing Art Deco style of the time. .
Independent, the first of them is numbered and signed by hand, 44/45. It represents a young woman holding two blue feathers in her hands, richly dressed in tunics gathered around her waist and falling to the ground. All this among reeds and blue birds like the kingfisher.
The second is similar, it is a little larger in size and has a dedication from the author at the bottom. Likewise, a young woman appears carrying two baskets on her shoulders. The central theme in the two prints is an oriental woman doing everyday tasks but exuding beauty and refinement. Simple composition, the body is the main axis, thus following concepts such as iki, or simplicity, without elements that distort the story told in the flow of daily life, the aesthetic value of Japanese art. From this great Asian influence, the author creates a style that comes from oriental literature and artistic pieces, in addition to her imagination and her inner world since she never traveled around the continent.
The technique, for its part, is magnificent. The artist follows the Japanese printing technique. She can find similarities with Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), one of the best artists of the ukiyo-e genre, especially known for his compositions of beautiful women or bijin-ga of special delicacy and finesse. His work became known in Europe during the 19th century, causing a great impact on French artistic culture, producing a cultural approach in Impressionism.
Elyse Ashe's first prints were drypoint and later hand-colored with watercolor. Later, she combined this technique with woodblock printing, known as xylography, applying it in a similar way as Japanese artists, each color being a different woodblock. Her style is characterized by the use of fine, stylized line drawing, and delicate but vibrant colors, creating images that exude a serene, almost dreamlike quality. The sense of the “total work of art” must also be taken into account in this piece, present in some artists of the early 20th century, where complete action on the part of the artist is sought. In this sense, the frame that these two pieces present are also the work of Elyse Ashe, who painted them by hand with oriental ornaments.
Like all prints made at this time, the thin sheet of Japan-type paper has small undulations, also due to the drypoint printing technique. Original period framing, framed by “L. H. Lefevre & They are, Fine Art Gallery, 1st King Street, St James’s Square. "London."
Some bibliographical notes
Born Elise Máller in 1885 in Chelsea. Her father was of German origin, so when she married Thomas Ashe Lord she adopted her surname since at that time there was a lot of hostility between England and Germany, which caused many people to hide her paternity. German from her.
Young Elyse attended Heatherley Art School in Chelsea before the Great War where she learned the rudiments of printmaking, being one of the few art colleges in Britain that focused on portraiture, figurative painting, printmaking and illustration. During the first years, until 1921, her creations were based on watercolors and paintings on wood panels. Her first watercolor exhibition took place in 1919. In November 1921, she exhibited at the Brook Street Gallery in London. Elyse was elected a full member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors in 1922, and her first color prints of her were issued and shown by the Fine Arts Society in Bond Street, London, in the spring of 1923.
During the course of his career he exhibited his prints and paintings at the Royal Academy, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of Artists (Birmingham), the Walker Gallery (Liverpool), the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, the Goupel Gallery, the Leferve Gallery, and the Redfern Gallery, among others. She also exhibited at the Paris Salon, where she won a silver medal, and with the Chicago Society of Etchers, and she was also a member of the Society of Color Graver-Printers.
It is unclear whether she made any impression after World War II. She died in Abingdon in 1971 aged 86.
Technique on support: Engraving on Japanese paper
Author: Elyse Ashe Lord
Period: 1930s
Country of origin: England
Good condition based on age and use.
Detailed dimensions
53 x 43 x 2cm. / 30 x 23 cm.
49 x 38 x 2cm. / 30 x 21 cm.
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Specifications
ConditionGoodHeight53 cmWidth43 cmDepth2 cm