JAPANESE TRIPTYCH TITLED PARODY OF AN IMPERIAL CARRIAGE SCENE, 18IN x 23IN (46cm x 58cm)

Inventory #: 23-840 - $675.00

Three Japanese woodblock prints, a set of 3 prints by Kitigawa Utamaro (1753-1806) titled Parody of an Imperial Carriage Scene, and they are after the originals which were created in 1798. These modern copies of his original works are each double matted and framed under glass, in beautiful bamboo frames. Each measure 18 inches x 23 inches. These were acquired from a Virginia estate.

About the Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin okubi-e, "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects. Little is known of Utamaro's life. His work began to appear in the 1770s, and he rose to prominence in the early 1790s with his portraits of beauties with exaggerated, elongated features. He produced over 2000 known prints and was one of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime. In 1804 he was arrested and manacled for fifty days for making illegal prints depicting the 16th-century military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and died two years later. Utamaro's work reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, where it was very popular, enjoying particular acclaim in France. He influenced the European Impressionists, particularly with his use of partial views and his emphasis on light and shade, which they imitated. The reference to the "Japanese influence" among these artists often refers to the work of Utamaro. Little is known of Utamaro's life. He was born Kitagawa Ichitaro in c1753. As an adult, he was known by the given names Yusuke, and later Yuki. Early accounts have given his birthplace as Kyoto, Osaka, Yoshiwara in Edo (modern Tokyo), or Kawagoe in Musashi Province (modern Saitama Prefecture); none of these places has been verified. The names of his parents are not known; it has been suggested his father may have been a Yoshiwara teahouse owner, or Toriyama Sekien, an artist who tutored him and who wrote of Utamaro playing in his garden as a child. Apparently, Utamaro married, although little is known about his wife and there is no record of their having had children. There are, however, many prints of tender and intimate domestic scenes featuring the same woman and child over several years of the child's growth among his works.