The Courtesan Konosumi, from the series Beauties of the Southern Quarter (Nangoku bijin awase)
Original title: The Courtesan Konosumi, from the series Beauties of the Southern Quarter (Nangoku bijin awase)
kurzbeschreibung
Konosumi, a courtesan, holds the centre of a sheet from Kitagawa Utamaro's series Beauties of the Southern Quarter, made around 1793–94. It was printed as a colour woodblock (nishiki-e) with mica on paper. A portrait of a woman meets a landscape that opens up behind her.
Description
Konosumi wears her black hair piled high, threaded with yellow stripes and floral ornament. Her lids are lowered and her expression stays quiet, turned inward. A fan bearing Chinese characters rests on her arm. Water, boats and houses lie behind her. Grey, white and blue set the tone, with red and yellow as accents.
Context
The series dates from the 1790s, a high point for the ukiyo-e woodblock print. In it Utamaro portrayed women of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter in Edo, present-day Tokyo. For the city audience of the Edo period such pictures were popular and worked much like a fashion magazine. The mica mixed in gave the impressions a luxurious sheen.
Impact
The even arrangement and the woman's calm bearing give the sheet a balanced, almost meditative measure. The close view of the portrait and the distance of the landscape create spatial depth. Because the mica throws back the light, the figure seems to shimmer faintly, which heightens her elegance.
Technique
Nishiki-e was used here, the multicolour woodblock in which mica powder is applied to the paper. Crisp contours and clearly separated areas of colour follow standard ukiyo-e practice. The mica counted as an elaborate refinement and was reserved for high-quality prints.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)