UTAMARO: oban tate-e (37.4 x 25.2 cm.); a beauty seated in robes patterned with dense overlapping flowers holding a fan, from the series Nishikiori Utamaro gata shin moyo "New patterns of brocades in Utamaro style", signed Utamaro hitsu and published by Tsuruya Kiemon, ca. 1790, yellow ground- good impression, color faded, a few light stains and soil toward edges, upper left corner slightly torn

Details

UTAMARO: oban tate-e (37.4 x 25.2 cm.); a beauty seated in robes patterned with dense overlapping flowers holding a fan, from the series Nishikiori Utamaro gata shin moyo "New patterns of brocades in Utamaro style", signed Utamaro hitsu and published by Tsuruya Kiemon, ca. 1790, yellow ground- good impression, color faded, a few light stains and soil toward edges, upper left corner slightly torn

Lot Essay

This is one of the set of three prints each depicting a courtesan against a yellow ground. The title makes a pun on the word nishiki (brocades) to indicate nishiki-e (prints). In the long inscription to the right of the title in the partially unrolled scroll Utamaro proclaims his own skill and denounces the inferiority of contemporary works and their editors