Kitagawa Utamaro

                  (喜多川歌麿)

         : Contemplative love                   

                         c1800s

Utamaro woodblock Silk Print in  Original bamboo styled frame,

Fame 42x33cm, original Mounting & Backing boards 19th century c1920s 

Please note that this item was previously listed as 18th century we have since removed the silk from the frame and can confirm it is a 19th century piece we do apologise for the inconvenience. .

Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿), c. 1753–1806, is considered to be, by universal consensus, one of the giants from the ukiyo-e school, having produced more than 2,000 print designs (many of superb quality and innovative conception), paintings (about 50 survive), and illustrated books, including roughly 20 anthologies of kyôka (playful verses: 狂歌), 30 albums of shunga ("spring pictures," erotica: 春画), and 40 other genres, such as kibyôshi ("yellow covers," popular comic literature: 黄表紙).

Above all, Utamaro was the premiere designer of bijinga (pictures of beautiful women: 美人画) during the 1790s and early 1800s. Among the glories of his oeuvre are many ôkubi-e ("large head pictures" or bust portraits: 大首絵) such as the masterpiece on offer , Utamaro's  original work circa 1793-94, titled momo-omou koi (Contemplative love: 物思恋) from the series of five known designs titled Kasen koi no bu (Anthology of poems: the love section: 歌撰恋之部). None of the women are courtesans or connected with the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter in Edo, as was often the case with bijinga. The drawing style is refined and the close-ups expressive, with hints of individuation among the women in their facial characteristics, a trait not usually found in bijinga. In this instance, the beauty is possibly middle-aged and married, and some say reflecting on a past love or present lover.

Utamaro studied with the Kanô-trained Toriyama Sekien (鳥山石燕), 1712-1788), a pen-name of Sano Toyofusa (佐野豊房), an 18th-century scholar, kyôka poet, and ukiyo-e artist of Japanese folklore. Utamaro's earliest known work is a small image in the haiku anthology Chiyo no haru (Eternal spring: 千代春 or simply ちよのはる) published in 1770, with 48 illustrations mostly by Toriyama Sekien and his pupils. Utamaro's contribution was a picture of three eggplants signed Shônen Sekiyô ga (painted by the youth Sekiyô: 少年石要画). His second art name was Kitagawa Toyoaki (北川豊章), which he used at least as early as 1775 with a cover illustration on a libretto for the Tomimoto (富本) school of chanting and the kabuki play Shikû-hatte koi no showake (Forty-eight famous love scenes: 四十八手恋所訳) at the Nakamura-za, Edo. The first use of the Utamaro name appears to be for a kibyôshi titled Minari daitsûjin ryaku-engi ("Short history of the grand connoisseurs": 身貌大通神略縁起) in 1781.

Provenance from original purchase

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