Foggy Morning, Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, U.S.A.

Of the thirty-five prints in Obata’s 1930 World Landscape Series, there is a single image of San Francisco, his home from 1903 until the early 1930s. The series’ table of contents identifies this scene as something witnessed after the great earthquake of 1906:

The morning after the terrible catastrophe in San Francisco in 1906 saw the metropolis enveloped in its famous fog. In the distance the voice of an Italian fisherman is heard calling out his goods to attract his customers, while the people of the city lie fatigued and silent.

The print captures the eerie stillness of the shattered city with a view up a wide, empty avenue flanked by trees and half-seen buildings, as a tiny fisherman crests the hill.

For Foggy Morning, multiple blocks were employed in 90 separate printing stages; subtle details, color washes, and powdered mica were layered to achieve the luminosity and subtle gradations of his watercolors.