Hasegawa

Kiyoshi
Baigneuse






Artist: Hasegawa Kiyoshi (長谷川潔) 1891-1980


Title: Baigneuse


Medium: burin


Year: 1946


Size: 28 x 20 cm


Signed lower right


Annotated épr. d’artiste (artist's proof) lower left


Reference: Akio Uozu, Kiyoshi Hasegawa – L’œuvre gravé (1913-1971). Tokyo,
Édition Reifu Syobo, 1999, n° 277

very rare: for the same engraving please see
Sotheby's London, Dec 3rd, 1992, lot 341 (also an artist's proof)



The Artist

Kiyoshi Hasegawa was born in present-day Yokohama in 1891, when the city
was the most international city in Japan. He moved to the the United States, then
to France in 1919 to learn copperplate printing, and never returned to Japan.

While most of artists of his time focused on painting, he remained faithful to
engraving, reaching levels comparable to those of Durer and Rembrandt, and is
nowadays considered the most skilled and probably the most poetic engraver of
the XXth century.

According to Yokohama Museum of Art, is work shows "the influence of Chagall,
Dufy, Laboureur, Pascin, Picasso and Edouard Goerg Alas. He revived the so-
called Mezzotint technique and found the power and the depth of black in wood
engraving. Works such as Hasegawa's come from the heart. His art is subtle and
delicate. It is an ideal created in the silence of the workshop with memories of
the recent past, transposed by the sharpness and delicacy of Oriental
sensibilities".






The Artwork

The present artwork, coming from a private Parisian collection, is a burin
engraved in 1940s. The environment is peaceful, lines are essential, and the
result is a metaphysical image, despite the sensual shape of the woman.

It is an uncommon subject for the artist, and, even most important, an extremely
rare engraving.
For the only specimen appeared in a public sale was sold in 1992, at Sotheby's
London, and it was an artist's proof, too, it is reasonable to think that no actual
edition was printed, probably thanks to some problems with the printing plate
(which may have been damaged), and this situation makes our artwork
extremely rare and valuable.


The Market

Being a French/Japanese artist, the collector of his artworks are settled mainly in
these two countries, and of course in the United Kingdom for top works.
As it happens especially with graphic arts, most of the deals are settled privately
through specialised dealers. At public sales, the most successful etchings (The
Fox and the Grapes, Still lives, etc) are fetching up to several tens thousands
pounds.
Hasegawa is a modern artist, whose production is limited and the quality of his
artworks exceptional, allowing dealers and galleries to invest in publications and
exhibitions; his collectors are both faithful amateurs and occasional buyers who
are kidnapped by the beauty and the poetry of his images. For this reason,
despite not having been a painter so not belonging to mainstream art, his market
is strong, and one or two of his etchings are a must for any sophisticated art
collection of the XXth Century.