Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956)
中国美人
The Chinese Lady
1934
木版画 | 纵绘大判 |37cm x 24cm
Woodblock-print | Oban tate-e | 37cm x 24cm
初版且唯一版本；颜色保存和品相状态非常好；在画面边缘有几处极为轻微的小脏痕
First and only edition; great color; Very slight discoloration along top and left margin, otherwise in excellent condition.
$12,000
很多年前第一次见到这幅《中国美人》，我几乎愣住了。她微笑着望向观者，眼神柔和而自信，仿佛在无声地与我对视。那一刻我心想——这不就是我吗？朋友和客人也常说，她像极了我：眉眼间有相似的神情，穿着我最爱的旗袍款式。也许正因为如此，我对这幅作品有一种特别的亲近感。
美人身着浅蓝色花纹的旗袍，端坐在一把中式椅上，微笑着望向观者。发间的波纹整齐服帖，是当时流行的“手推波纹”造型，展现着1930年代“摩登女郎”的优雅与自信。她手腕上还戴着一只浅蓝色的手表——细小却醒目的现代饰物，让整幅画多了一分生活的真实感，也悄悄透露出她所处时代的气息。
画面背景是一幅传统仕女画，隐约可见古代女子的身影，与前景这位现代女性形成鲜明对比——一个脚踏新时代的形象，正从旧世界的画框中走出。她既现代，又带着东方女性特有的温婉与含蓄。
这幅作品出自苏格兰艺术家Elizabeth Keith之手。1915年，她28岁来到日本，居住东京九年，以此为据点游历东亚各地。新版画运动的出版人渡边庄三郎为她出版了约百件作品。凯丝以西方女性的视角记录亚洲世界，这幅《中国美人》正是她最著名的代表作之一。
学者Richard Miles认为，这件作品是Keith最罕见的版画之一，或仅印制25幅。他推测此作为赠予画中人物家属的礼物，并指出画中旗袍所使用的大面积云母粉装饰，在Keith的作品中极为罕见，堪称其创作生涯中独一无二的尝试。
Keith的版画因印量稀少而极为珍贵，其中部分作品仅发行三十至五十幅。她的作品现藏于大英博物馆、巴黎吉美博物馆、加拿大国家美术馆等地。1937年，英国伊丽莎白女王亦曾收藏过她的亚洲题材版画。
我喜欢她，不只是因为她和我有几分相似，更因为她让我看到那个时代女性的美——优雅、柔和，却有着自己的方向与光。
She’s Chinese, in the latest fashions of 1930’s, but she’s indisputably a moga --a “modern girl,” in the Japanese slang of the time.
Elizabeth Keith was born in Scotland and came to Japan in 1915 when she was 28. She stayed nine years. During that time, she used Tokyo as her home base while travelling extensively around Asia. Shozaburo Watanabe, the father of Shin Hanga, published roughly 100 of her designs.
“Chinese Lady” is one of her most famous. The carefully posed but unnamed Chinese beauty smiles at us while cosseted in a right-fitting Qipao dress, its intricate lines accentuated by a generous helping of glittering mica. Her hair is styled in soft finger waves. She is modern but the background of traditional Chinese paintings is anything but. This is a design – and a young woman – travelling between two epochs.
The scholar Richard Miles believes this to be among Keith’s rarest prints, with perhaps as few as 25 impressions made. He believes it was a gift to the sitter’s family and points out, by way of evidence, that the extensive mica in the dress was unique in Keith’s ouvre.
At the time the Western world was fascinated by all things Japan, and, similarly, most things Asian. To us Chinese it was just another day in the life. But Keith provided audiences back home with never-seen people and views.
Did she succeed in capturing this lovely creature without defaulting to cliché or “othering” her as a charming Asian curiosity? I think so. There is a hint of romantic exoticism, but it is done, I believe, with affection.
Because of small runs, Keith's prints can be expensive, and some works with only 50 or even 30 copies published are especially rare. They were collected by the British Museum, the Guimet Museum in Paris and the National Gallery of Canada, among others; in 1937, a group of Asian-themed prints created by her were purchased by Queen Elizabeth.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
Elizabeth Keith (1887-1956)
中国美人
The Chinese Lady
1934
木版画 | 纵绘大判 |37cm x 24cm
Woodblock-print | Oban tate-e | 37cm x 24cm
初版且唯一版本；颜色保存和品相状态非常好；在画面边缘有几处极为轻微的小脏痕
First and only edition; great color; Very slight discoloration along top and left margin, otherwise in excellent condition.
$12,000
很多年前第一次见到这幅《中国美人》，我几乎愣住了。她微笑着望向观者，眼神柔和而自信，仿佛在无声地与我对视。那一刻我心想——这不就是我吗？朋友和客人也常说，她像极了我：眉眼间有相似的神情，穿着我最爱的旗袍款式。也许正因为如此，我对这幅作品有一种特别的亲近感。
美人身着浅蓝色花纹的旗袍，端坐在一把中式椅上，微笑着望向观者。发间的波纹整齐服帖，是当时流行的“手推波纹”造型，展现着1930年代“摩登女郎”的优雅与自信。她手腕上还戴着一只浅蓝色的手表——细小却醒目的现代饰物，让整幅画多了一分生活的真实感，也悄悄透露出她所处时代的气息。
画面背景是一幅传统仕女画，隐约可见古代女子的身影，与前景这位现代女性形成鲜明对比——一个脚踏新时代的形象，正从旧世界的画框中走出。她既现代，又带着东方女性特有的温婉与含蓄。
这幅作品出自苏格兰艺术家Elizabeth Keith之手。1915年，她28岁来到日本，居住东京九年，以此为据点游历东亚各地。新版画运动的出版人渡边庄三郎为她出版了约百件作品。凯丝以西方女性的视角记录亚洲世界，这幅《中国美人》正是她最著名的代表作之一。
学者Richard Miles认为，这件作品是Keith最罕见的版画之一，或仅印制25幅。他推测此作为赠予画中人物家属的礼物，并指出画中旗袍所使用的大面积云母粉装饰，在Keith的作品中极为罕见，堪称其创作生涯中独一无二的尝试。
Keith的版画因印量稀少而极为珍贵，其中部分作品仅发行三十至五十幅。她的作品现藏于大英博物馆、巴黎吉美博物馆、加拿大国家美术馆等地。1937年，英国伊丽莎白女王亦曾收藏过她的亚洲题材版画。
我喜欢她，不只是因为她和我有几分相似，更因为她让我看到那个时代女性的美——优雅、柔和，却有着自己的方向与光。
She’s Chinese, in the latest fashions of 1930’s, but she’s indisputably a moga --a “modern girl,” in the Japanese slang of the time.
Elizabeth Keith was born in Scotland and came to Japan in 1915 when she was 28. She stayed nine years. During that time, she used Tokyo as her home base while travelling extensively around Asia. Shozaburo Watanabe, the father of Shin Hanga, published roughly 100 of her designs.
“Chinese Lady” is one of her most famous. The carefully posed but unnamed Chinese beauty smiles at us while cosseted in a right-fitting Qipao dress, its intricate lines accentuated by a generous helping of glittering mica. Her hair is styled in soft finger waves. She is modern but the background of traditional Chinese paintings is anything but. This is a design – and a young woman – travelling between two epochs.
The scholar Richard Miles believes this to be among Keith’s rarest prints, with perhaps as few as 25 impressions made. He believes it was a gift to the sitter’s family and points out, by way of evidence, that the extensive mica in the dress was unique in Keith’s ouvre.
At the time the Western world was fascinated by all things Japan, and, similarly, most things Asian. To us Chinese it was just another day in the life. But Keith provided audiences back home with never-seen people and views.
Did she succeed in capturing this lovely creature without defaulting to cliché or “othering” her as a charming Asian curiosity? I think so. There is a hint of romantic exoticism, but it is done, I believe, with affection.
Because of small runs, Keith's prints can be expensive, and some works with only 50 or even 30 copies published are especially rare. They were collected by the British Museum, the Guimet Museum in Paris and the National Gallery of Canada, among others; in 1937, a group of Asian-themed prints created by her were purchased by Queen Elizabeth.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
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