BEAUTY AND DANCER (Keisai Eisen)

N.1 ukiyo-e woodblock print
Year: 1830 ca.
Condition: fair
Size: 23 x 34,5 cm

SOLD

Description

Precious original woodblock print of the tachibijin-zu (立美人図) type, that is “portrait of a standing beauty”, made around 1830 by the famous artist Keisai Eisen (渓斎英泉). On the left, a haiku (俳句) poetic composition dedicated to the flowers of iris laevigata (かきつばた). In the upper inset, the silhouette of a dancer visible through a shoji (障子).

The work was produced by the publisher Izumiya Ichibei (和泉屋市兵衛), owner of Kansendo (甘泉堂), and is taken from a series entitled “Bijin sugata” (美人姿), that is “Figures of Beauties”.

The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙) has the right signs of aging including some tiny holes, as well as a larger and restored wormhole between the red petticoat and the publisher’s seal.