J.S. Yamamoto Sunset Silhouette Trees

An original early 20th-century watercolour painting, J.S. Yamamoto, Sunset Silhouette Trees.

A visually stunning, large silhouette painting by listed Japanese artist J.S. Yamamoto, who was active around the beginning of the 20th century. No biographical information about Yamamoto is readily available, but the occurrence of the artist's paintings in England suggests that they had connections with Britain, if not worked here. Stylistic elements of the artist's work also point to a hybrid of Japanese and Western origins.

The two-dimensional aesthetic of Japanese woodblock prints, with silhouetted forms used as a popular motif, were often found in European fin-de-siècle etchings, lithographs and woodcuts. Figures were stylised into decorative abstractions by representing them as flat expanses of colour, found in the work of Toulouse-Lautrec for example.

In watercolour and gouache.