Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge: Peking-- North Gate
Artist: Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (1889-1975)
Title: Peking- North Gate Date: 1925 Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo
Size: 39 x 26.5 cm
Our view is of a pastel-hued ancient gate, rising up atop the walls of the city. Below we see an array of ordinary citizens going about their business. This must be Deshengmen, or “Gate of Virtuous Triumph”, a city gate that was once part of Peking’s northern city wall. In centuries past the imperial military would march out of the city through this gate, and return through the Gate of Peace and Stability. It has survived modernization and may still be seen today, overlooking the 2nd Ring Road in Beijing.
Due to his years of world travels, his liberal internationalist views and his own modest upbringing, Baldridge treated his subjects with respect and equanimity, eschewing the colonialist attitude that was the norm at the time. This is one of the most "picturesque" views of the series, but it still features a person of the farming class.
Watanabe published six or seven woodcuts in total by this artist in the same year; they are unique in style, as little about them aligns the other works that Watanabe was publishing at the time. They feature almost no bokashi (shading), and the pigments are much more opaque than those used in works by other artists, especially Hasui landscapes. Watanabe and his artisans must have collaborated with the artist to replicate the original artworks done by Baldridge. This dealer has usually encountered these works in very faded condition following decades on the wall; we see their real charm and liveliness when unfaded, as here. Pencil signed Cyrus Baldridge ‘25 and titled “PEKING- North Gate” by the artist at bottom. Also numbered 26x by the artist in pencil.
Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge began his art training at the tender age of ten, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1911. During World War One he worked as a war correspondent and illustrator in Europe, becoming the top illustrator for the Stars and Stripes and other publications. After the war he published a book of his collected war sketches to show what he had seen. He is quoted as saying “If only I can make the public see what war is–what a dirty, low thing it is, and how brutal it makes men fine clean men– then they’d fight to the last ditch for the League of Nations”. In 1920 he forged a partnership with the writer Caroline Singer, and after the war they traveled across China and Japan as well as Africa. They later became deeply committed to the rights of Black Americans.
Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
SKU: BAL008