Admiring a Picture of a Dandy by Okumura Masanobu, 1768

Details

Suzuki Harunobu (1725?-1770)
Admiring a Picture of a Dandy by Okumura Masanobu, 1768
Woodcut of a courtesan seated smoking a pipe and looking at a scroll held by her kamuro of a young man-about-town (wakashu) with a lantern, signed Harunobu ga, Masanobu scroll inscribed Hogetsudo Tanchosai Okumura Bunkaku Masanobu shohitsu (Genuine brush of Hogetsudo Tanchosai Okumura Bunkaku Masanobu)--very good impression, some pigment slightly faded though there is prevalent purple pigment, slight smudging lower left, lightly backed, glue residue on verso
chuban tate-e: 10 5/8 x 8 3/8in. (27 x 20.6cm.)

Provenance

Paul Pescheteau

Exhibited

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "The Max Palevsky Collection of Japanese Woodblock Prints," 2001.2.8-5.15

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Lot Essay

In this image Harunobu gives a nod to the great ukiyo-e innovator, Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764), as he clues us to the sophistication of his own viewer, the smoking courtesan. For another example of the print, see Julia Meech and Jane Oliver, eds., Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680-1860, exh. cat. (New York: Asia Society and Japanese Art Society of America in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2008), fig. 54.

Previously sold in these Rooms, 23 March 2000, lot 184

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