Elizabeth Keith (English, 1887-1956), East Gate, Pyeng Yang

1925, woodblock print on paper, signed in pencil Elizabeth Keith to lower right corner, professionally framed with double mats under glass.
Frame dimensions 19 1/2/ x 24 3/4 in.
Elizabeth Keith was born in Scotland and was a self-taught artist. She practiced the traditional Japanese style of woodblock printing and watercolors. Her sister married a publisher who worked in Tokyo, so she visited in 1915. Though she had only intended on a brief sojourn in Japan, Keith stayed for nine years to study and practice printmaking, and she later published her first woodblock prints with some success. The publisher Sh?zabur? Watanabe collaborated with Keith and almost all of her prints were executed at Watanabe’s traditional shin-hanga workshop. Keith participated in every part of the process and even carved some of her own blocks. She depended upon Watanabe for the production and distribution of her artwork.

During Keith's time in the East, she traveled throughout Asia depicting the subjects she encountered on her travels. Keith's work was well received in the United States and Britain. She returned to Britain in 1924, then returned again to Japan and other areas of Asia in the early 1930s until the onset of World War II. Keith continued painting and making prints of the landscapes and people she loved, and during the war she raised funds for Chinese women affected by Japan's military violence. In 1946, she and Jessie published Old Korea: Land of the Morning Calm, a celebration of the country and people who had welcomed them throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

Additional high-resolution photos are available at www.lelandlittle.com

Good estate condition; some overall even toning; a few foxing spots to right hand side; not examined outside of the frame.