Keeping Cool

         It’s time for some seasonal block prints, and this time I’m sharing some pieces in which artists have tried to capture the summer joy of trying to stay cool.  Spanning different eras and places, some things are very different, while other things are universal.

        Going chronologically, I’ll start with a wood block print from about 1715 in Japan.  People lounge about on a boat and by the water, no doubt hoping for a cooling breeze.  One woman holds a fan.  The man on top of the boat has bared some skin, but most of the other people look awfully bundled up.  The sunset colors, which are painted onto the single-block print, make the whole scene look quite oppressively sultry, and even the tree looks wilted.  The people on

the boat don’t look very happy.  All of which makes me not particularly enjoy this piece, but it’s interesting to see something 300 hundred years old, and yet other than the heavy formal clothing, it could be today.

        Jumping to 1897, we still have a woman wearing layers of petticoats, long sleeves, and long gloves at the height of summer.  No wonder she’s enjoying her iced drink in the shade.  This print involves three blocks with three colors, but all of the colors are somewhat pale and dull, perhaps emphasizing the heat, and once again suggesting late afternoon.  This woman is certainly fashionable, with the better part of two whole dead birds on her hat, and the composition of the piece puts us in the position of someone joining her at her small table in the park.  I especially like the spare but effective lines delineating the fabric of her dress, and the clouds in the sky.

        Not until 1967 do we see people taking off all the extra layers of fashionable clothing.  Now they’re all in bathing suits on the shore of Lake Michigan.  Sailboats are offshore, some people are swimming while others play ball, or simply sunbathe.  The rough style doesn’t give nearly as much detail to the fashions, but I can definitely see a 60’s vibe in the styles of the bikinis!  Nevertheless, this is a summer scene we can certainly recognize as modern.

        This last piece, from the 21st century, is the first one that really looks cool, with its fountains of blue water.  Instead of the lassitude of sweltering heat, this woman is full of energy - that water may actually be cold!  I love her exuberant pose, hands up, braids flying, as she leaps among the sprays of water.  Truth be told, it has to be very hot indeed before I actually want to get into cold water - that second woman with her drink in the park is more likely to be my summer strategy of choice - but this final block print absolutely looks like the most fun.

        Enjoy some other scenes of summer at prior posts Summer Days, Summer Nights, and When the Living is Easy.

         What’s your favorite way to keep cool when the temperature soars?

[Pictures: Cooling Off on a Summer Evening, hand-colored woodblock print by Okumura Masanobu, c. 1715 (Image from Art Institute Chicago);

Paris Almanac: Summer, wood engraving by Auguste Louis Lepère, 1897 (Image from The Cleveland Museum of Art);

Chicago Riviera, woodcut by Bronislaw M. Bak, 1967 (Image from Art Institute of Chicago);

Seasonal illustration by Kari Percival (Image from karipercival.com).]