Description
In this scene, a woman pauses in her task of fulling cloth (pleating or gathering cloth to make it full) to gaze at the moon just as a flock of geese pass over. Perhaps overcome by the moment, she bites the end of her kerchief. The simple elements of fulling blocks, geese, and a full moon are traditional symbols of autumn in Japanese art. The pounding of the silk also has erotic connotations in East Asian painting.
Although it is not signed, the style resembles work by painter Teisai Hokuba, known for his ukiyo-e or “pictures of the floating world.” Hokuba was an eminent disciple of the famed artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849).
The woman's white face appears to reflect the moon's surface. In Japan, the autumn harvest moon has many romantic associations and is a popular subject of poetry. In mid-autumn a Moon-Viewing Festival is held on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar moon, which is regarded as the Harvest Moon. This festival became popular during the Edo period, when the citizens of the city of Edo enjoyed a festival in honor of the moon held on the banks of the Sumida River.
Although it is not signed, the style resembles work by painter Teisai Hokuba, known for his ukiyo-e or “pictures of the floating world.” Hokuba was an eminent disciple of the famed artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849).
The woman's white face appears to reflect the moon's surface. In Japan, the autumn harvest moon has many romantic associations and is a popular subject of poetry. In mid-autumn a Moon-Viewing Festival is held on the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar moon, which is regarded as the Harvest Moon. This festival became popular during the Edo period, when the citizens of the city of Edo enjoyed a festival in honor of the moon held on the banks of the Sumida River.
Provenance
(Nathan Chaikin, Switzerland, sold to Mr. and Mr. Kelvin Smith); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art (? by 1973–1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985–)
Accession Number
1985.260
Medium
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Overall: 189.2 x 53.3 cm (74 1/2 x 21 in.); Painting only: 96.5 x 33.7 cm (38 x 13 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Ink Silk Painting
Background & Context
Background Story
Woman Looking at the Moon from the 1800s depicts a woman looking at the moon in the elegantly composed, atmospheric manner of the Edo period painting tradition. The subject of a woman looking at the moon was one of the most important subjects in Japanese painting, representing the aesthetic of aware—the bittersweet awareness of the transience of things—that was central to the Japanese literary and artistic tradition. The 1800s date places this in the Edo period, when paintings of women in atmospheric settings were producing some of their most elegantly composed works.
Cultural Impact
Woman Looking at the Moon is important in the history of Japanese painting because it demonstrates the aesthetic of aware—the bittersweet awareness of the transience of things—that was central to the Japanese literary and artistic tradition. The subject of a woman looking at the moon—representing the aesthetic of aware—was one of the most important subjects in Japanese painting, and the 1800s painting shows this tradition at its most elegantly composed and atmospheric.
Why It Matters
Woman Looking at the Moon is an anonymous Edo period painting: a woman looking at the moon rendered in the elegantly composed, atmospheric manner of the Japanese painting tradition. The 1800s painting shows the aesthetic of aware that is one of the most important subjects in Japanese painting.
