Going to the Fair

Born into a wealthy, socially prominent California family, Helen Hyde received art instruction in New York, Berlin, Paris, and finally Japan, where she spent half of her adult life. In addition to learning ukiyo-e printmaking techniques, Hyde studied the Japanese language and traditional brush painting during her residence there. She entrusted the block-cutting and printing of her designs to Japanese masters, however, overseeing their labor to obtain the results she wanted. Her editions ran anywhere from 100 to 250 impressions, an astonishing number that would be much lower if the physical effort of production had been her own.

Resource: Chelsea Foxwell and Anne Leonard, Awash in Color: French and Japanese Prints, exh. cat. (Chicago: Smart Museum of Art, 2012), pp. 153–55.