Description
Refined woodblock print depicting a bijin (美人) beauty applying makeup in front of a mirror while, on the right, a second woman observes an evocative river panorama overlooked by Mount Fuji (富士山). The work, made in August 1897 by the artist Miyagawa Shuntei, is taken from a series that, in the intentions of the author, should have had the title “Flowers of the Floating World” (浮世の花) but which, with a play of assonance of the ideograms, was allusively entitled “Flowers Full of Joy and Good Luck” (有喜吉之華).
Shuntei (1873 – 1914) was born in Aichi Prefecture (愛知県) and lived most of his life in Tokyo. He studied painting with Watanabe Shoka (渡辺小華) and Tomioka Eisen (富岡永洗) and was a prolific designer for book and newspaper illustrations as well as various series of woodblock prints. His most refined works are those that portray women and children.
The print on Japanese washi paper (和紙), produced by the publisher Akiyama Buemon (秋山武右衛門), owner of Kokkeido (滑稽堂), despite the right signs of aging including an imperceptible slit on the hair of the woman on the left, is in very good general condition.
