After Kitao Masanobu (1761-1816)
Three elegant beauties in a conversation: the lady on the left sitting with her pipe, the standing lady in the middle is leaning towards her, while the lady on the right with her uchiwa fan is a little distracted, playfully teasing a cat with a dangling tassel.
Title: Yamashita no Hana (Flowers, i.e. Beauties from Yamashita).
Series: Tôsei bijin iro-kurabe (A Competition of Modern Beauties)
Signature: Kitao Masanobu ga
Ink brush drawing on thin paper, Japan, 20th century?
Size: Vertical Ôban, 37,7 x 27 cm (overall)
Fine outline drawing with ink on very thin paper, after a famous print from about 1780 by Kitao Masanobu (also known as the poet Santô Kyôden).
Impressions of the colour woodblock prints are illustrated e.g. in Ukiyo-e Taikei, vol. 3, no. 74, and Cat. Tokyo National Museum vol. 2, no. 1384; cf. also MFA Boston nos. 21.5708 and 34.364; Brooklyn Museum no. 45.37.6; Art Institute of Chicago, no. 1925.2566.
€ 380,-