Obata: Before Thunderstorm, Tuolumne Meadows

Artist: Chiura Obata (1885-1975)
Title: Before Thunderstorm, Tuolumne Meadows Series: Date: 1930

Series: World Landscape Series “America”  Size: 33.4 x 45.1 cm

Pristine rivers wend their way into Tuolomne Meadows, a forest of pines blanketing the landscape. Heavy thunderclouds dark with moisture roll in above, with sheets of rain beginning to fall at left. The clouds have rendered the pines quite dark themselves. Blue ribbons of river undulate throughout the valley, partially hidden by the storm-darkened conifers. Each subtle brushstroke has been painstakingly captured by the printers and carvers under the direction of the artist; this series was an undertaking that was unprecedented and singular in the world of Japanese woodblock print production. This seems to be the view that Obata captured with a watercolor while climbing Lembert Dome, as we see what must be Mount Lyell rising in blue in the far distance, a glimpse of glacier on its shoulder. Although the vantage point is above the trees in the near foreground, it does not seem high enough to be the view from the top of Lembert Dome. In the Yosemite book, this quote from Obata was chosen to be next to the image: “Like a sleeping lion the Lembert Dome rests unconcerned in the center of the Tuolumne Meadows, walled in by a train of high, surrounding rocky mountains. He sleeps in the midst of an approaching storm. Thunder rumbles and roars through the vast meadow, like a huge orchestra at the height of its frenzied rendition of an overture, announcing the coming of a storm. but the dome, like a lion, sleeps, unconcerned.” (page 110 of “Obata’s Yosemite”)

As the curator Timothy Burgard, noted in a talk, Obata’s art transcends geography, and “Obata himself is a national treasure whose art equals or surpasses anything made by American modernists at the time.”

According to the  Takamizawa booklet that was printed to accompany this series, a total of 114 impressions were needed to complete the final printing of this design in order to replicate all the subtleties of Obata's original watercolor. Reportedly 400 impressions of each of the 35 compositions were made, with only the finest 100 selected for the portfolio, and the 10,500 “less perfect” impressions were destroyed. Scarce. Publisher: Takamizawa
Literature: “Obata’s Yosemite”, page110. See the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts online,  See also Smithsonian American Art Museum online.  

Signature: Unsigned, as is common

SKU: OBA153