"A definite yes and no"
Email received December 6, 2002
Hello Marc,
I have looked at the 3 cats, and read the accompanying text. I think it is
very difficult to assess these things after the event, unless there is
either contemporary documentation, or recorded observation to support a
particular hypothesis. I am becoming very concerned at the increasing amount
of exploitation of the Shin Hanga market, with new prints on old paper being
churned out, and now there seem to be nearly limitless supplies of Hiroaki
miniature prints, which were quite unseen 12 months ago. But I doubt that
anyone would produce copy paintings of Shin Hanga prints for exploitative
purposes. I does cross my mind that, in my student days, we would
occasionally attempt to copy an artwork as an exercise, and if they did that
sort of thing in Japanese art schools, they might well use a Shin Hanga
print as a subject. I think it is interesting that the white cat painting is
reversed vis-a-vis the print, and since it would not matter in terms of
accuracy which way round the cat was, the blockmaker might have copied the
painting exactly, resulting in a print which was the reverse of the
painting. Which does not explain the black cat, of course. The seal and
signature issue also makes me wonder whether such accurate and indeed
similar renditions would have appeared on an artist's preliminary artwork,
or whether they are so carefully reproduced because they were copied from
the print. If this were a philatelic item, and I was still working for
an auction house, I would describe these as 'possibly artist's
preliminary artwork for the issued print, or possibly later copies of the
issued print.'
So that's a definite yes and no from me,
Regards,
Bruce Henderson
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