Kitano Tsunetomi

1880-1947

Bride
(Hanayome)

ink, gofun, and colors on silk, mounted on brocade, signed Tsunetomi and sealed Tsunetomi; accompanied by tomobako with title, Hanayome, and signed and sealed Tsunetomi, ca. 1930

painting: 20 by 22 1/8 in., 50.7 by 56.2 cm
overall: 59 5/8 by 28 58 in., 151.5 by 72.7 cm

Born in Kanazawa, Kitano Tsunetomi moved to Osaka as a young man where he would establish himself as a leading master of bijin-ga, and in his own lifetime, earn recognition as the first Nihonga artist from Osaka. He began his artistic career from 1892 to 1895 as an apprentice at woodblock printing shops in his hometown. In 1897 he worked for the carver Nakayama Komataro, before moving to Osaka in 1898 to study with the painter and print designer Ineno Toshitsune (1858-1907), a former pupil of Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908). In 1899 he began publishing illustrations in the monthly Shin-Nihon ('New Japan') while he also studying yoga (Western-style painting).

During the first two decades of the new century, Tsunetomi emerged as a successful bijin-ga painter and illustrator. His early work was particularly distinctive; while many artists of this period were portraying women as relatively sweet and innocent, Tsunetomi's beauties were infused with a compelling combination of mysterious sexuality and realistic vulnerabilities. In 1910 he began exhibiting his paintings at the government sponsored Bunten exhibitions, and from 1914 with Inten, the exhibition of the Nihon Bijutsu-in (Japan Art Institute). After he became a full member of the Nihon Bijutsu-in in 1917, Tsunetomi's paintings style changed. His depictions of bijin became more idealized and refined, with less emphasis on exploring further dimensions of their sexuality. He began self-publishing prints in 1918, and established his juku (private teaching atelier), Haku-yosha (White Radiance Company) where he taught other prominent Osaka artists such as Shima Seien (1892-1970) and Nakamura Teii (1900-1982).

This half-length portrait of a bride in profile relates directly to another painting of the same subject illustrated in the catalogue accompanying the 2003 Retrospective: Kitano Tsunetomi exhibition held at the Osaka City Museum of Modern Art (p. 98, no. 64); as well as a closer bust portrait of the same subject published in volume 3 of the Gendai Nihon Bijinga Zenshu (p. 85). Other paintings illustrated on the same pages feature beauties composed from a similar angle. The figures are rendered in profile with their steady gaze cast downward and away, contemplative and introspective, lost in thought and withdrawn from our realm.

Provenance:
Ex. Patricia Ann Salmon (1933-2022), Japanese art collector and dealer, and contributor to the 2002 landmark exhibition and publication, Taisho Chic

References:
Baba Kyoko, Gendai Nihon Bijinga Zenshu: Kitano Tsunetomi/Nakamura Daizaburo, vol. 3, 1978, p. 85 (similar painting)
Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975, University of Hawaii Press, 1992, p. 68
Ellen P. Conant, Steven D. Owyoung, J. Thomas Rimer, Nihonga: Transcending the Past: Japanese-Style Painting, 1868-1968, The Saint Louis Art Museum, 1995, pp. 309-310
Hashizume Setsuya, Retrospective: Kitano Tsunetomi, Osaka City Museum of Art, 2003, p. 98, no. 64 (similar painting)
Julia Meech, et. al., Patricia Ann Salmon (1933-2002): Plenty of Charm and Taisho Chic, in, Impressions 44: The Journal of the Japanese Art Society of America, 2023, pp. 125-153

(inv. no. C-3623)

price: $13,000