- 254
Kitagawa Utamaro, (1753-1806)
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Description
- Kitagawa Utamaro
- a beauty painting her eyebrows
- oban: 37 by 25.5cm., 14 1/2 by 10 1/16 in.
depicting a woman, probably a celebrated courtesan, applying paint to her eyebrows (mayu hiki), the surface face of the mirror applied with mica, grey ground; censor's seal kiwame, publisher's mark of Ise-Mago, signed Utamaro hitsu
This design is from a series of three prints showing women applying make-up in front of a mirror and according to Asano and Clark this example could possibly be the right sheet of a complete triptych, the other two designs of `a woman powdering her neck' and `a woman making up her lips' forming respectively the centre and left sheets.
This design is from a series of three prints showing women applying make-up in front of a mirror and according to Asano and Clark this example could possibly be the right sheet of a complete triptych, the other two designs of `a woman powdering her neck' and `a woman making up her lips' forming respectively the centre and left sheets.
Literature
Other impressions of this very rare print illustrated in BM 1995, pl.252 and HUT vol.7, no.29; see also Shibui 59-3-1
Catalogue Note
Original handwritten notes on mount, acheté à Yamanaka, 16-8-09