Kaoru Kawano - 白い花 (White Flowers)

A fabulous and charming print by Kaoru Kawano - 白い花 (White Flowers) depicting a child in silhouette with a white bow in her hair, gazing at two white calla lilies with yellow centres. The tall stems rise in front of the figure, and the printed pattern of the natural grain of the woodblock runs through the background and silhouette. A lovely piece. 🌼

• Year & Edition: c.1950s-60s. Open edition. Artist’s red hanko, black seal verso.
  
• Medium: Woodblock.
  
• Dimensions: Paper approx. H 42.75 cm × W 29.00 cm. Image H 37.75 cm × W 22.50 cm.
  
• Condition: Good. Crisp paper and clean image. Slight foxing to margin and small foxing spots to the upper flower.
  
• Notes: 白い花 (shiroi hana) means “white flowers,” here represented as two calla lilies.

About the Artist

河野薫 Kaoru Kawano (1916-1965) was a postwar printmaker from Otaru, Hokkaido, known for his charming stylised child figures, northern birds, owls, and the distinctive use of woodgrain in his prints. Trained under Narita Gyokusen and later at the Kawabata Art School in Tokyo, he resumed his career after wartime service and prisoner internment in Siberia, exhibiting with the Japan Print Association (日本版画協会) and Kokugakai (国画会), and receiving the Kokuga Prize in 1955. Through Yoseido Gallery his work was shown widely in international print exhibitions, and both his pencil-signed and seal-stamped editions are increasingly collected today. [ ← View All Works by Kaoru Kawano]