Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks

Description

A girl steps onto a veranda after a bath to look at a pot of pinks. A warm breeze stirs the poem-strip tied to the windbell above her. Irises bloom in the pool in the background. The print has been identified as the summer subject in a set of four flowers representing each season and is considered to be one of Harunobu’s most enchanting designs. One of the most celebrated and productive of all ukiyo-e artists, Harunobu is widely recognized as the first Japanese printmaker to create designs by printing each color in the image with a different block. These prints came to be known as nishiki-e, or brocade pictures, suggesting their resemblance to the gorgeous brocades worn at the time. The embossing on the waves in the stream and on the flowers was created by using unpigmented blocks during the printing process.

Provenance

Henri Vever [1854–1942], France (?-1942); (Sotheby & Co., London, UK, March 26, 1974, part I, lot 48) (March 26, 1974); (R. E. Lewis, Inc., California, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith) (1974?-?); The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899-1998] given to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?-1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985-)

Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks

Suzuki Harunobu

c. 1767

Accession Number

1985.304

Medium

color woodblock print, with embossing

Dimensions

Sheet: 27 x 19.2 cm (10 5/8 x 7 9/16 in.)

Classification

Print

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith