hanging scroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1926,0726,0.1
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll. Standing beauty seen in profile: woman wearing pale lilac kimono and black fabric of long hanging belt, shown from side and raising her right arm. Ink, colour and gold on paper. Signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1801-1811
- Dimensions
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Height: 90 centimetres
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Width: 30.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Clark 1992
About the time that Hokusai changed from the name Sori to Hokusai in 1798 he began to perfect a suave style of painting beauties uniquely his own that was characterised by long, tapering outlines in strong, dark ink, light washes of colour and occasional passages of crisp detailing of accessories or drapery patterns. This style, which he continued to practise throughout his forties in the Kyowa (1801-4) and early Bunka (1804-18) eras, is the one here imitated by Shinsai, one of Hokusai's earliest pupils.
The woman, perhaps a geisha, is shown from the side, her face in full profile, raising her right arm in an apparent gesture to someone out of the picture. The pale washes of the lilac kimono and black fabric of the long hanging 'obi' contrast with the opaque white of her powdered white face and the occasional accents of brilliant scarlet in her hair and at her collar, sleeve-opening and skirts. The 'obi' is overlaid with a design of the leaves of a trailing water plant ('kohone') subtly picked out in gold. Her proportions are tall and slender, and her attitude refined and intelligent. Though the pose is straight, even stiff and correct, the flowing lines of the kimono skirts collect in a sensuous eddy at her feet, and attention focuses on her fashionable 'décolletage', the nape of the neck being considered particularly erotic. Comparison may be drawn with paintings by Hokusai from the early Bunka era (1804-18) such as 'Beauty at the Time of the Tanabata Festival' ('NU', vol. 7 (1982), no. 8).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1926
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1926,0726,0.1
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.Add.45 (Japanese Painting Additional Number)
