Browse: 10610 objects
A lady with a cup of tea
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Details
- Associated place
- Date
- 1796 - 1812
- Artist/maker
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Kitagawa Utamaro (c. 1753 - 1806) (designer)
- Associated people
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Tsuruya Kiemon (c. 1720 - 1875) (publisher)
- Material and technique
- nishiki-e (multi-block) woodblock print, printed with water-based vegetable pigments
- Dimensions
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mount 55.8 x 40.5 cm (height x width)
print 38 x 25.6 cm (height x width)
- Material index
- Technique index
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Presented by Mrs Allan and Mr and Mrs H. N. Spalding, 1952.
- Accession no.
- EAX.4111
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Further reading
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 August-30 November 2005, Beauties of the Four Seasons, Mitsuko Watanabe, ed. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 14 on p. 28, illus. p. 29
Glossary (2)
nishiki-e, vegetable pigments
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nishiki-e
Nishiki-e literally means 'brocade pictures' and refers to multi-coloured woodblock prints.
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vegetable pigments
Vegetable pigments were used to create coloured dyes for Japanese prints, paintings, and textiles. These pigments often faded over time due to the chemical reactions they underwent.
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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Beauties of the Four Seasons
Bust Portrait. A girl in a pink kimono is looking to her right holding a cup with chrysanthemum pattern in her right hand. The motif Misokoshi-gōshi (basket check style) of pink check contrasting with a brown stripe was chic in the Edo period. She is probably waiting for her tea to cool down while she demonstrates strong emotion as detected from her pursed mouth and her dishevelled hair. Having hot tea and putting her left hand inside her kimono perhaps implies it is late autumn or early winter.
The colours in this print have faded slightly.
This appears to be the only recorded copy of this print. The cup was originally blue and white.
© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum