Eisen: Beauty with cherry blossoms
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Keisai Eisen (1790-1848)

Beauty sitting on the corner of a verandah under a blooming cherry tree and wiping her face with a tenugui towel. The Uchiwa fan-shaped cartouche contains a riverside scene with boats.

Series: Fujibitai (Female hairlines shaped like Mt. Fuji)

Signature: Keisai Eisen ga

Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudô)

Censor: Kiwame

Date: 1818-30

Size: Vertical Oban, 37,4 x 24,9 (overall)

Excellent impression in fine colours. Near bottom right corner two expertly restored wormholes; some minimal stains. Overall excellent condition.
From a very rare series of elegant beauties. This reading of the title alludes to a beauty ideal of a female hairline resembling the contour of Mt Fuji.

Cf. Tokyo Metro Library 079-C003-003. Another print from this series is illustrated in the Catalogue of the Chiba City Museum of Art, Keisai Eisen: Artist of the Floating World, 2012, p. 143, No. 166, and ibid. p. 289, where 7 (8?) prints of the series are listed, some with different character writings (Nos. 225 1-7, 226). Only one print in the collection of the MFA Boston, Bigelow Coll. 11.17925. Not listed in Marks, Publishers.

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