Kikugawa Eizan (1787-1867)
A high-ranking courtesan and her visitor making love, amidst richly patterned robes and beddings. At their heads a smoking set and a black lacquered Tansu. In the background a Sugoroku board (Japanese backgammon).
Series: E-awase kingaishô (kinkaishô) (A picture contest in the brocade quarters)
Date: 1815
Size: Horizontal Ôban, 25,3 x 37,4 cm
Excellent impression and colours, with metallic pigments. The usual vertical centrefold smoothed. In the green colour at the right a few inconspicuous paper cracks, caused by metal pigment oxidation, expertly backed from verso. A few tiny spots. Overall very nice condition.
From a very fine and rare series of twelve magnificent erotic prints, in which the artist places particular emphasis on the lavish, brocade-like design of the surfaces.
Calza, Poem of the Pillow and other stories. London/New York 2010, p. 405ff (fig. p. 413). Timothy Clark et al., Shunga, sex and pleasure in Japanese Art. Cat. British Museum 2013, p. 416. Fig. 4. See also Ofer Shagan, Japanese Erotic Art. The Hidden World of Shunga, London 2013, p. 121, no. 6.10.
sold