UTAMARO: oban tate-e (39.1 x 26cm.); a half-length portrait of a woman smoking, holding a pipe in her right hand and exhaling a cloud of smoke, pulling up the sleeve of her kimono with her left hand, from the series Fujo ninso juppin "Ten classes of women's physiognomy", signed Sokan Utamaro koga (Thoughtfully drawn by Utamaro the physiognomist) and published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, white mica baclground--very good impression, color slightly faded, some worm holes and water stains, mica background generally well oreserved but worn in the corners and several crease lines, laid down on paper

Details

UTAMARO: oban tate-e (39.1 x 26cm.); a half-length portrait of a woman smoking, holding a pipe in her right hand and exhaling a cloud of smoke, pulling up the sleeve of her kimono with her left hand, from the series Fujo ninso juppin "Ten classes of women's physiognomy", signed Sokan Utamaro koga (Thoughtfully drawn by Utamaro the physiognomist) and published by Tsutaya Juzaburo, white mica baclground--very good impression, color slightly faded, some worm holes and water stains, mica background generally well oreserved but worn in the corners and several crease lines, laid down on paper

Lot Essay

This series, published around Kansei 4-5 (1792-3) in considered to be one of Utamaro's masterpieces. It appears that Tsutaya Juzaburo intended to publish ten prints but only eight are extant, and these have two titles (Fujo ninso juppin "Ten classes of women's physiognomy" and Fujin sogaku juttai "Studies of ten types of female physiognomy"). Each has a triple-tablet title cartouche with the series title on the right and the signature, kiwame seal and publisher's seal on the left. Some images of the later series have subtitles. These appear in the center. This set is one of the earliest examples of half-length portraits of beauties and is one of the first to feature mica grounds

For other impressions see Yoshida Ukiyo-e taisei, Vol. 7 (Tokyo: Toho shoin, 1931), no. 41; Shibui, Ukiyo-e zuten, Vol. 13 (Tokyo: Kazama Shobo, 1964), p. 49; Yamaguchi Keizaburo, Ukiyo-e taikei, Vol. 5, Utamaro (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1973), pl. 15; Narazaki, Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections, Vol. 7, Musée Guimet, Paris, II (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1990), pl. 3; Yamaguchi Keizaburo, Meihin soroimono ukiyo-e, Vol. 3, Utamaro I (Tokyo: Gyosei, 1991), pl. 2; Asano/Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro (Tokyo/London: Asahi Shimbun/British Museum Press, 1995), pl. 63, p. 47