Utagawa Kuninao I (1793-1854)
A young beauty in a splendid kimono, holding her fan in her hand, walking on a beautiful spring day; blooming azaleas along the way.
From an untitled series of women in the Four Seasons.
Title: Haru (Spring)
Signature: Kuninao hitsu
Seal: Toshidama
Publisher: no mark (probably Yamamotoya, Edo)
Censor: Kiwame
Date: 1811-14
Size: Vertical Ôban, 37 x 25,5 cm (overall)
Very nice impression and colours, with relief printing, only slightly faded. In margins partly some little soiling and rubbing, right margin with a little paper thinning; very few small thin areas and one small hole. Overall very good condition.
Very rare and elegant image by the artist - a rarely seen early pupil and friend of Toyokuni I. Until now no other copy of this image could be traced. Series at Marks, P1232.
The summer print from the series in the collection of the MFA Boston, Bigelow Coll., 11.25844, also in: Illustrated Catalogues of the Tokyo National Museum - Ukiyo-e Prints, Tokyo 1974, vol. 3, no. 2674. Summer and winter prints illustrated in Ukiyo-e Taikei, vol. 9, Tokyo 1975, plate 58 and fig. 253 (with a note by the author, that the spring and autumn prints hadn’t been sighted until then). A publisher's seal is only found on the summer print, with the censorship seal Hamakô, hence the dating.
sold