Key words
woodblock print; polychrome; the double portrait; Japan
Questions to ask
Compare this image to A Portrait of Mr and Mrs Dixon in Tullie House. What are the differences between these two portraits?
Do you think that this image is of two real people, or has the artist invented them? How can you tell?
This about the composition of this work and the positioning of the two people. How would the mood of the image be altered if the man and the woman changed positions?
How this might inspire your work
Create a wire sculpture portrait with clean and simple lines, in the style of Utamaro’ composition.
Look at yourself in a mirror and make a continuous line drawing of your face onto a piece of paper. A continuous line drawing is when you draw with a very steady, slow line, without taking your pencil off the paper at any point whilst you are drawing. You may need to go back over your lines if you need to get your pen to another place on the paper.
The next stage is to make a wire sculpture. Using a length of jewellery wire, simply bend the wire to conform to the drawing you’ve made on the paper. The challenge is to make the shape from one length of wire, and not to cut the wire.
O-Chiyo and Hambei published about 1800 by Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806).
This is a woodblock print of a domestic interior, with a man and woman gazing at each other as they prepare food. The woman, to the right of the composition, wears a loose kimono and a towel around her head. She holds a pestle in her hands. The man is to the left, and peels a round vegetable with a broad bladed knife. Hambei is probably a portrait of a courtesan from the Yoshiwara (brothel district) of Edo (present day Tokyo).
Kitagawa Utamaro was a Japanese printmaker and painter, and is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e). He is renowned for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga. Utamaro produced over two thousand prints, and he alone amongst his contemporary ukiyo-e artists achieved a national reputation during his lifetime. His work reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, where it was particularly popular in France. It is suggested that his use of partial views and his emphasis on light and shade influenced the work of many European Impressionists.
There are these inscriptions on the exhibit:
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery collection, bequest of Emily and Gordon Bottomley 1949
Image © Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
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