Twelve Images of Modern Beauties: Bathing in Early Summer (Shin bijin juni sugata: Shoka no yoku)
signed and dated Taisho juichinen haru Shinsui saku (Taisho 11 [1922], spring, by Shinsui), with artist's seal Ito, publisher's seal Watanabe in white at lower right corner, and hand-numbered limited edition seal on verso, Nihyaku mai kagiri zeppan, dai hyaku-ju-nana ban (200 limited edition, number 117), 1922
dai oban tate-e 43.7 by 26.7 cm; 17 1/4 by 10 1/2 in.
This print exemplifies the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo's innovative use of baren sujizuri as a decorative motif as well as an opportunity to depict the haze of a steamy bath. The outline of the nude, conveyed with overlapping karazuri (blind printing), seems to dissolve within the vigorous baren swirls.
References:
Kato, Junzo, comp., Kindai Nihon hanga taikei, 1975-76, Vol. 1, pl. 182
Tadasu Watanabe, Ito Shinsui: All the Woodblock Prints, 1992, p. 60, pl. 34
Reigle Stephens, Amy, gen. ed., The new wave: Twentieth-century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, 1993, p. 189, no. 246
Brown, Kendall H. & Goodall-Cristante, Hollis, Shin-Hanga, New Prints in Modern Japan, 1996, p. 42, fig. 38
Reigle Newland, Amy, and Hamanaka Shinji, The female image: 20th century prints of Japanese beauties, 2000, p. 55, pl. 37
Nihon no hanga III 1921-1930, Toshi to onna to hikari to kage to (Japanese Prints III, 1921-1930: Cities and Women, Lights and Shadows), Chiba City Museum of Art, 2001, p. 36, pl. 2-1
Koyama Shuko, Beautiful Shin Hanga- Revitalization of Ukiyo-e, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 2009, p. 208, nos. 5-13 - 5-18
Andreas Marks, Seven Masters: 20th Century Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Wells Collection, 2015, p. 112, cat. no. 59
price: Sold
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Scholten Japanese Art
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