Japanese Woodblock Prints
Japanese Woodblock Prints
Property from a Private Collection
Lot Closed
July 18, 01:11 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collection
Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828)
Enjoying the Evening Cool at Ryogoku
Edo period, early 19th century
hanging scroll: ink, colour, gold and gofun on silk, signed Toyohiro ga (Pictured by Toyohiro), sealed Toyohiro, silk brocade mount depicting swallows in flight above waves, embroidered gold-wrapped silk thread details, wood scroll ends, later fitted wood inner and outer boxes
50 x 63.7 cm., 9⅝ x 25 in. (excluding mount)
149 x 83.7 cm., 58⅝ x 33 (including mount)
11.5 x 91 x 12 cm., 4½ x 35⅞ x 4¾ in. (the fitted outer box)
Edo-bunka shirizu 9, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin-ten [Edo Culture, Series 9: Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Painting], exhib. cat.(Tokyo, 1989), p. 70, pl. 23.
Itabashi Art Museum, Tokyo, Nikuhitsu ukiyo-e meihin-ten [Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Painting], 8th April - 7th May 1989.
Their robes gently fluttering in the evening summer breeze, two fashionably dressed women take a walk by the bank of the Sumida River. They stand by the Ryogoku Bridge, a famous spot for enjoying summer amusements such as fireworks, pleasure boating and river-side restaurants and teahouses which can be seen lining the opposite bank. Both wear boldly pattered obi: the figure on the right decorated with large stylised chrysanthemum flower-heads, the figure on the left with a chequered design containing various motifs including tama [sacred pearl] and daikon [winter radish].
Known for his portraits of beautiful women, typically with elegant demeanour and air of ennui, Toyohiro was also a prolific printmaker and illustrator. Toyohiro became a student of Utagawa Toyoharu (1735-1814), the founder of the Utagawa school. He would later become the teacher of the great landscape woodblock print artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).
An almost identical composition by Toyohiro, slightly wider and with the addition of a boy attendant, is in the collection of the Edo Tokyo Museum, collection ID 91220004, go to:
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