Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge: Peking Winter
Artist: Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (1889-1975)
Title: Peking Date: 1925 Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo Size: 26.2 x 39.3 cm
Scene of an ancient pailou (or paifang) entrance gate to a specific Peking neighborhood, still in use after centuries, although several diagonal supports are shown that must have been added to the original structure in more recent times to shore it up. It must be early morning, as a farmer is leading his livestock to market, while to the left we see a man riding a donkey. We see no signs of greenery or nature, just a rather yellowish sky and the sunlight reflecting in a puddle at right. This view from one hundred years ago could also be from previous centuries, prior to Peking’s explosive modernization and growth in the the 20th and 21st century.
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. Here we see how Baldridge has chosen to highlight an everyday scene, rather than a famous view that presented a more curated and picturesque ideal.
These woodcuts are also unique in style, as little about them aligns the other works that Watanabe was publishing at the time. They feature no bokashi (shading), and the pigments are much more opaque than those used in works by other artists, especially compared to Hasui landscapes. Watanabe and his artisans must have collaborated with the artist to replicate the original watercolors 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, with the limited edition number of 52/200 as written by the artist.
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 and condition.
SKU: BAL004