Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Utamaro was the son and pupil of Toriyama Sekiyen, a painter of the Chinese school. He was early influenced by the work of Kiyonaga, however, and became one of the most important and popular of Ukiyo-e artists. Utamaro is particularly distinguished for his portrayal of beautiful women, especially his portraits of famous courtesans of the Yoshiwara district depicting tall, slender, elegant creatures engaged in everyday activities and pleasures. Owing to Utamaro’s popularity, he was extensively copied by contemporary artists, even to the point of forging his signature, so that he was obliged in some prints to add the word shomei (the real) before his signature. His works were exported even during his lifetime, thus he was one of the first Japanese artists to become known and collected by Europeans. Toulouse-Lautrec was one of his many admirers.
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Ukiyo-e (Pictures of a Floating World)
For over two hundred years, 1640 to 1853, the ports of Japan were virtually closed to the outside world. During this period of isolation a unique and technically unrivaled art emerged--the Ukiyo-e woodblock print. Ukiyo-e, “pictures of a floating world,” evolved to meet the demands of a rising merchant class for an an that reflected its own interests and amusements. The subjects depicted were Kabuki theater, famous courtesans, genre scenes and famous sights.
These prints reached their summit in the latter part of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. The process of production demanded a team effort between the artist-designer, the woodblock cutter, the printer and the publisher. Hiroshige, Utamaro, Eizan, and Buncho are but a few of the great Japanese artists who were engaged in this popular and highly lucrative art.
Distributed in mass quantities as souvenirs, handbills, and posters, the prints became increasingly popular among the Japanese throughout the 19th century. This popularity spread to the Western world following the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The Ukiyo-e influence, both direct and indirect, upon Western art can be seen in the works of many European and American artists including James Whistler, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt, and other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists."