Bamboos in Hortus Godotii

The beautiful art of

Gesso Yoshimoto 1881-1936

Very little is known about the Japanese shin hanga artist Gesso Yoshimoto. But when the famous collector and art dealer Robert O. Muller passed away in 2003, he left in his collection a very large number of beautiful woodblock prints by this artist.

Kacho-e and Landscape Prints

Known are a large number of landscape print designs and kacho-e (images of birds and flowers). They were published by Hasegawa and by Nishinomiya Yosaku. The designs are very well made from an aspect of craftsmanship and artistic composition.

Gesso Yoshimoto must have had an art training in traditional Japanese painting. He may even have been a painter, and his designs may have been transformed by professional carvers and printers into woodblock prints on commission of the publishers Hasegawa and Nishinomiya.

But we really do not know. This is a guess. The woodblock prints however make the impression as if they had been designed specifically for export, mainly to the United States and Europe. This was typical for the shin hanga art movement.

Two swallows and Wisteria

Click on ''Gesso Yoshimoto'' above and request free access to PDF file for more works by this artist.