Late 19th Century Kitagawa Utamaro Japanese Geisha Silk Needlework (Hari-Shigoto)

Description

Kitagawa
Needlework (Hari-shigoto).
来源 Henri Vever (1854-1943), Paris (red seal lower left).
Art framed in glass.

History
Utamaro
Japanese artist … more Kitagawa
Needlework (Hari-shigoto).
来源 Henri Vever (1854-1943), Paris (red seal lower left).
Art framed in glass.

History
Utamaro
Japanese artist
Kitagawa Utamaro was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings.
His first major professional artistic work, produced in 1775 when he was about twenty-two years old, seems to have been the cover for a Kabuki playbook, under the gō (art-name) of Toyoaki. He then produced a number of actor and warrior prints, along with theatre programs and other such material. From the spring of 1781, he switched his gō to Utamaro, and started painting and designing mediocre woodblock prints of women.
And is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.
None of his works from the period 1790-1792 have survived.
In 1793 Utamaro released a new series of prints of women which won him widespread recognition. Utamaro was said to have portrayed the beauty of women with more depth and sensitivity than any other ukiyo-e artist. He used new techniques which allowed him to achieve a different and softer effect with the flesh tones of his women.
The women in his portraits did not resemble the physiognomy of typical eighteenth-century Japanese women. They had extremely tall and slender bodies, heads that were twice as long as they were broad, very long noses and tiny slits for the eyes and mouth. Over the years, he also produced numerous volumes of nature studies and shunga, or erotica.

In 1797, Tsutaya Juzaburo died, and Utamaro was apparently very upset by the loss of his long-time friend and supporter. Some critics feel that his work never again reached the same heights after the death of Tsutaya.
In 1804 Utamaro got into serious trouble with the authorities over a historic scene he had published, showing the ruler Toyotomi Hiedyoshi with his wife and five concubines. This was regarded as an offense against the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, and he was briefly imprisoned. Some sources say that he was sentenced to wear handcuffs for fifty days, others say he was forced to wear an iron collar. This humiliation had a devastating effect on him; he fell into a deep depression and died in Edo two years later, in 1806, at the age of fifty-three. In spite of his suffering, Utamaro continued producing prints until his death.

Marked & Sealed

Style
Japonisme (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques
Silk,
Wood
Place of Origin
Japan

Condition
Good
Wear consistent with age and use. minor wear. Minor wear on the wood frame in keeping with age.
Dimensions
12" X 1" 14" less