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Colour Woodblock Print - Girl at her Toilet with two female attendants and male admirer

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© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

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Basic Information

Accession Number:1926P184
Collection:Fine Art Prints and Drawings
Date:1791 c - 1792

Maker Information

Artist:Kitagawa Utamaro - View biography for Kitagawa Utamaro

Notes

Utamaro is accredited with producing some 1900 designs for single sheet prints. About thirty per cent of these are directly related to the Yoshiwara quarter and scenes from the lives of the courtesans. These women were generally contracted into the profession for 10 years until their mid-20s. The degree of distortion and idealism which Utamaro brings to what has been described as the Yoshiwara courtesans' 'hell on earth' continues to be a central debate of Utamaro studies.

Here a client, still in bed, muses at a prostitute making herself up with the aid of a hand mirror and her attendant. The light hearted Kyoka poem above is by Ichi no Nakazumi. No other impressions of this design are currently recorded.

Bequeathed by Henry Watson Smith, 1926.

Further Information

Production Period:18th century
School/Style:Japanese Print
Medium:Coloured woodblock print.
Material(s):Paper

Associated People

Dimensions

Height:325 mm
Width:223 mm