Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770) | A courtesan and her client beside a brazier | Edo period, 18th century

Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906)

Henri Vever (1854-1942)

Sotheby's, London, Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books, Drawings and Paintings from the Henri Vever Collection, Part III, 24 March 1977, Lot 34

Pari Beberu korekushon, ukiyo-e meisaku 300 senten (300 Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e from the Vever Collection), exhibited at the following venues: 

Keio Department Store, Tokyo, 4^th - 15^th January 1975

Hanshin Department Store, Osaka, 6^th - 18^th February 1975

Sogo Department Store, Hiroshima, 21^st - 26^th April 1975 

Pari Beberu korekushon ukiyo-e meisaku 300 senten (300 Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Prints from the Vever Collection), exh. cat., (Tokyo, 1975), no. 60.

On a cold evening in late autumn or early winter, a young courtesan dressed in a kimono with a design of snow-covered plum branches kneels beside a brazier whilst writing on a poem slip (tanzaku). Her client observes whilst reclining under winter robes. A tethered pet monkey sits near the brazier eating a fruit and further winter robes hang on a kimono stand (iko) behind them. 

Japanese woodblock prints overall found a dynamic reception in the West during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The print bears the collector’s seal of Henri Vever (1854-1952), one of the most prolific collectors of Japanese prints. Other early collectors included artists, such as Felix Bracquemond (1833-1914), Edouard Manet (1832–1883), Claude Monet (1840–1926) and Edgar Degas (1834–1917), as well as art critics like Philippe Burty (1830–1890). Many of the great early collections of ukiyo-e were assembled with the assistance of Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906), an art dealer from Nagasaki who established himself in Paris in 1878. In the United States, one of the foremost collectors of woodblock prints was the architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), who sold a legacy of his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) between 1918-22.

Another impression of the same print is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 11.19713, go to:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/226439/courtesan-client-and-pet-monkey?ctx=27df5675-7cbe-4741-989d-1c7b70d64904&idx=0