- Museum number
- 1965,0724,0.4
- Description
-
Painting, hanging scroll. Woman at her morning toilette: married woman washed her face in shallow copper basin and about to dry it with cotton hand-towel; toothbrush rests on small blue and white porcelain bowl beside basin, with mouthwash; potted morning glory in bloom. Ink and colour on silk. Signed and sealed. With paulownia storage box.
- Production date
- 1801-1804 (ca.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 124 centimetres (mount)
-
Height: 38.40 centimetres
-
Width: 73 centimetres (mount)
-
Width: 54.40 centimetres
-
Depth: 2.80 centimetres (mount)
- $Inscriptions
-
-
- Curator's comments
-
Asano and Clark 1995
A married woman has washed her face in a shallow copper basin and is about to dry it with a cotton hand-towel. A toothbrush rests on the small blue and white porcelain bowl beside the basin, which contains mouthwash. Utamaro presents the quiet, intimate moment as she pauses, towel spread between her hands, and glances over to her right at a potted morning glory in bloom. As with several other later paintings, a strong, stable triangular composition is created, with the vertical line of the woman's back falling almost exactly to the centre of the base of this triangle.
The patterns on the various textiles are cleverly differentiated, the modulation of the checks on her blue kimono, for instance, used to suggest the shape of her raised right knee and the cloth collecting at her elbow. The blue lines and dots on the printed cotton under-robe and towel are rendered correspondingly coarser to suggest their rougher weave. The flash of red undergarment around the naked left knee and the slightly open collar are typical instances of Utamaro's subtle eroticism.
Literature:
Smith, Lawrence, ed., 'Japanese Art: Masterpieces in the British Museum', BMP, London, 1990, no. 195.
Clark, Timothy, 'Ukiyo-e Paintings in the British Museum', BMP, London, 1992, no. 69.
'Hizo Ukiyo-e taikan', gen. ed. Narazaki, Muneshige, vol. 1, Kodansha, Tokyo, 1987-90, pls. 9 and 120.
Tokyo-to Bijutsukan 東京都美術館, 'Daiei Hakubutsukan hizo Edo bijutsu ten' 「大英博物館秘蔵江戸美術展」, Tokyo, 1990, no. 29.
[Main text translated in Japanese below / 以下上記本文日本語訳]
浅野／クラーク、1995
既婚の女性が浅い銅製の金盥で顔を洗い手ぬぐいで顔を拭こうとしている。歯を磨くための房楊枝が金盥のそばの小さな白地に青の鉢にのっている。鉢にはすすぎの水が入っているのだろう。歌麿は穏やかでくつろいだ一瞬を表現している。彼女は一瞬手をとめて、手ぬぐいをを広げたまま右側の植木鉢に花開いた朝顔を見やったところである。他の晩年の作品と同様に、強固な三角構図が作り上げられ、女性の背中のまっすぐな線が三角形の底辺の中心にちょうど交わっている。
何種類もの布の模様は巧みに描き分けられている。例えば青い着物の格子模様の変化によって右ひざを立てたときの形を表し、肘のところでは布が集まるのを示している。襦袢と手ぬぐいの藍染の線と点は荒っぽく描かれていて、織目の粗さを暗示している。むき出しの左膝のまわりにチラッとのぞく赤い下着と少しあけた襟元は歌麿がよく用いた微妙なエロティシズムの表現である。
-
Clark 1992
A woman has washed her face in a shallow copper basin and is about to dry it with a cotton hand-towel in preparation to applying the white face makeup from the small blue and white porcelain bowl beside the basin. Utamaro presents the quiet, intimate moment as she pauses, towel spread between her hands, and glances over to her right at a potted morning glory in bloom. The pose of the kneeling figure, back almost vertical and one knee raised so the skirt of the kimono forms a tight u-shaped curve which seems to come out of the picture, is one seen in several of Utamaro's colour prints; but here the effect of placing this figure in the large horizontal composition of the hanging scroll is quite different. Instead of the tight cropping of the figure found in the woodblock prints, Utamaro displays his skill at clever placement by putting the vertical line of the woman's back almost in the very centre of the scroll and then constructing around this a stable triangular composition whose points are the basin, the morning glory and the top of her ballooning 'marumage' hairstyle. A similar strong triangular composition is seen in other of the artist's horizontal paintings of the late Kansei period (compare, for instance, 'NU', vol. 6 (1981), nos 1, 8).
The patterns on the various textiles are cleverly differentiated, the modulation of the checks on her brown kimono, for instance, used to suggest the shape of her bent leg and the cloth collecting at her elbow, while the blue lines and dots on the printed cotton 'yukata' (cotton kimono) and towel are rendered correspondingly coarser to suggest a rougher weave. The flash of red undergarment around the naked knee and the slightly open collar are typical instances of Utamaro's subtle eroticism.
Literature:
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, nos 119, 120.
Smith, Lawrence, 'Japanese Art: Masterpieces in the British Museum', with Victor Harris and Timothy Clark. London, British Museum Publications, 1990, no. 195.
Tokyo-to Bijutsukan (eds), 'Daiei Hakubutsukan hizo Edo bijutsu ten'. Exh. cat., 9 Aug.-24 Sept. 1990, no. 29.
-
Asahi 1996
浅い銅の洗面器で顔を洗い終えた婦人が、手拭で顔を拭き、染付けの鉢に入った房楊子で化粧をしようとしている。手拭を拡げて一息入れ右手の朝顔の鉢を見やる、穏やかで身近なその一瞬を歌麿は描いている。上半身をまっすぐ起し片膝を立て、そのU字型の裾が画面から突き出すかのように見える座り姿は、歌麿の版画の幾つかに見出される。しかし、本作品では掛軸の大きな水平構図の中にこの姿をおいており、その効果はまったく異なる。周囲を刈り込まれたような錦絵の中の人物のかわりに、ここでは女性の背中の垂直線を掛軸のほぼ中央に置き、この線を中心に洗面器と朝顔の鉢を両角とし女性の丸髷の先端を頂点とする堅固な三角形を巧みに作っており、歌麿の技術の冴えが窺われる。同じような力強い三角形の構成が、寛政年間後期の横物に見出される（例えば、楢崎宗重監修『肉筆浮世絵』第6巻 1981年 集英社 1，8図）。
衣装の様々な織柄には巧みな変化が与えられている。例えば濃色の着物の格子柄には抑揚があり、膝を曲げていることや肘に布が溜まっていることを示している。一方浴衣や手拭の青い線や点は比較的粗く、織目の荒さを表している。むきだしの膝を取り巻く目を刺すような赤い下着やわずかに開いた襟元は、歌麿のエロティシチズムの典型的な例である。
（竹内美砂子（名古屋市博物館））
-
Smith et al 1990
In both his prints and paintings Utamaro was a master at capturing subtle nuances in the moods of his female subjects. A woman kneels by a metal basin of water, having washed her face in preparation to applying white make-up. Utamaro captures her as she pauses from drying her face and turns her head to glance at a potted morning glory, establishing a moment of arrested movement as our attention shifts between her face, the morning glory and the basin of water. Utamaro uses a similar triangular composition in several other hanging-scroll compositions.
There is a much stronger sense of three-dimensional substance in Utamaro's paintings than in many of his woodblock prints. The larger format allows for more space to surround the figures, and the intense, saturated pigments suggest more solid forms than the usually flat, translucent colours printed from woodblocks.
FURTHER READING
Narazaki, Muneshige (ed.), 'Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e 6: Utamaro', Tokyo, 1984.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2003 18 Oct-14 Dec, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2004 17 Jan-28 Mar, Kobe City Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2004 10 Apr-13 Jun, Fukuoka Art Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2004 26 Jun-29 Aug, Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum, Treasures of the World's Cultures
2017 8 Apr-4 Jul, Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Utamaro: The Triptych
- Acquisition date
- 1965
- Acquisition notes
- Maresco Pearce acquired this object in Paris early in the 20th century.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1965,0724,0.4
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.Add.380 (Japanese Painting Additional Number)
