Hyde, Helen (1868 - 1919 )
Helen Hyde was an American etcher and woodblock printmaker. Born in Lima, New York, Hyde grew up in California. She attended the California School of Design before she continued her artistic education in Berlin and Paris. During her time in Paris, Hyde was drawn to the French Japonisme. She found profound inspiration in the works of American Impressionist Mary Cassat and soon became known for her color etchings and woodblock prints of women and children. In 1899, Hyde traveled to Japan to study Japanese painting and woodblock printmaking. From 1903 to 1913, Hyde lived in Japan, refining her art and traveling to China, India and Mexico. In 1914, she left Japan and settled in the United States, where she died in 1919. Today, a large collection of Helen Hyde's art can be found in the Library of Congress.
Shin Hanga | Pre-WWII Japanese Prints
By the beginning of the 20th century the social fabric of Japan was radically altered and ukiyo-e was falling fast into oblivion. Surprisingly, it was under the stimulus of the Western art world that the spirit of ukiyo-e was reborn through the Shin Hanga or “new print” movement. The discovery of the powerful impact of ukiyo-e print masters on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists inspired a new generation of Japanese print artists who revived distinctly Japanese subject matter through modern eyes. International excitement for ukiyo-e paved the way for these artists to create woodblock prints with the same dignity, perfection and genius as the masters of the Edo period. As artists such as Goyo, Kotondo and Shinsui revived bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and Hasui and Yoshida reinterpreted the landscape of Japan, Shin Hanga reasserted the principal genres of ukiyo-e with a renewed vigor. Browse our collection of Shin Hanga and other pre-war Japanese artworks today.
