Young Purple
Original title: Young Purple
kurzbeschreibung
A woman holds a large green cushion – this motif defines “Junges Purpur” by Suzuki Harunobu, a Japanese woodblock print in ink and color on paper from around 1770. The sheet is in the tall hashira format and shows the figure in traditional dress.
Description
Elaborately styled hair with several ornaments frames the woman’s face. She wears a white undergarment, an orange top with black and brown patterns, and a long black skirt with golden embellishments. Her gaze falls to the right as she carries a large green cushion. Warm tones – orange, brown, and gold – contrast with the green of the cushion. Even light without visible shadows emphasizes the flatness. A small text, likely the artist’s or title inscription, appears at the bottom.
Context
Suzuki Harunobu ranks among the outstanding ukiyo-e artists of the eighteenth century and is considered a pioneer of the multicolor woodblock print (nishiki-e), which emerged in the 1760s. This sheet was made in the late Edo period, when the city of Edo (present-day Tokyo) experienced a cultural bloom. The figure of a woman in everyday yet elegant clothing belongs to the widespread genre of bijin-ga, pictures of beautiful women.
Impact
Delicate lines and a harmonious palette give the print a calm, elegant presence. The flat, shadowless rendering creates graphic clarity typical of ukiyo-e. The contrast between the warm tones and the green of the cushion remains subtle but effective.
Technique
For this woodblock print, the design was cut into wooden blocks and transferred to paper with ink and color. The use of multiple colors points to the nishiki-e technique, which allowed multicolor printing. Clear contours and color gradations are characteristic of the woodblock art of that time.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)