Woman Standing in Front of a Snow Covered Background

Print

-

Drexel Founding Collection

#2061, Photographed by Mary Elizabeth Kulesa, 2023: Recto
#2061, Photographed by Mary Elizabeth Kulesa, 2023

Recto

Name/Title

Woman Standing in Front of a Snow Covered Background

Entry/Object ID

2061

Category

Print

Acquisition

Source (if not Accessioned)

James W. Paul, Jr., Philadelphia

Notes

Date: 1969 Credit Line: Gift of James W. Paul, Jr. to the Drexel Library then transferred to The Drexel Collection Means of Accession: Transfer Source: James W. Paul, Jr. Donated to the Drexel Library 1906-1907

Made/Created

Artist

Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III)

Date made

1815

Place

Country

Japan

Continent

Asia

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Notes

Publishing company, Eikyudo

Dimensions

Height

14-3/4 in

Width

9-5/8 in

Exhibitions

Curator Pick of the Month
Arts of Asia: Selections from The Drexel Collection
Pictures of the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Curator Pick of the Month

Label

For the month of December, The Drexel Collection has chosen Woman Standing in Front of Snow Covered Background by Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III), a woodblock print created from Japan. Woodblock prints came to be the expression of the urban culture and emerging middle class of the Tokugawa period (1603-1867). Edo, the capital of Japan, became the epicenter of this artistic phenomenon that acquired great popularity in connection with the flourishing practice of Kabuki theatre. The Drexel Collection houses nearly 200 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints.

General Notes

Note

Woodcut prints were typically carved from cherry blocks. Each color of a design had to have a separate block carved, except for the Japanese ukiyo-e artists who were able to print multiple colors from one block by painting the design using brushes and subtle coloring. The earliest European examples of woodblock prints were playing cards and religious images around the end of the 14th century. Woodcuts were also the main form of book illustration until the end of the 16th century. (Trench, Materials & Techniques in the Decorative Arts, 2000)