Ohara Koson

From the private collection of Eskil Artberg (1886-1974), thence by descent within the family.
Owner and cofounder of Japanska Magasinet, an antique shop in Stockholm founded 1909 by Eskil and his brother John Artberg (1878–1933). The brothers were active in trading Japanese and Chinese works of Art and also contributing by lending objects to the early exhibitions of both Japanese and Chinese Works of Art, such as for example the one in 1911 at Konstakademin, Stockholm. The shop first focused on Japanese Works of Art and Japanese papers that they sold to the Swedish Artists of the early 20th century, then after the war when the interest of Japanese Art cooled of, Eskil came to focus more on Chinese Works of Art. Both the Etnographic Museum in Stockholm and Östasiatiska Museet in Stockholm hold items in their collections that has been purchased from Japanska Magasinet.

Ohara Koson (also Ohara Hōson, Ohara Shōson) was a Japanese painter and woodblock print designer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the forefront of shinsaku-hanga and shin-hanga art movements. Ohara Koson was famous as a master of kachō-e (bird-and-flower) designs. Throughout a prolific career, in which he created around 500 prints, he went by three different titles: Ohara Hōson (小原豊邨), Ohara Shōson (小原祥邨) and Ohara Koson.