Japanese Print "Two Men Watching a Courtesan Writing a Letter" by Suzuki Harunobu
Artist:Suzuki Harunobu
Title:Two Men Watching a Courtesan Writing a Letter
Date:late 1760s
Details:More information...
Source:Worcester Art Museum
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Description:
In the "show-room" of a seiro (brothel) an oiran is seated upon a red rug and occupied in writing a letter. Though the bars two men are looking in upon her; one of them with an open fan held before his face; Popular subject see Bunsho (TNM cat., I 822). A second state without background with figures at window and with a patterned mat on which the courtesan sits (Yoshida, 1942, 442; Z.H. Keyes, 1990). AIC says fan reads: Haru (Spring) aki (Autumn), iro (color) tsuki (moon) but doesn't read signature on fan. That version printed in green, two shades ob beni, gray, lavender and blue; Note that the figure on the right is that of a young samurai boy with his forelock while the other man has a hood to conceal his identity and holds a fan fashionably before his face. Active in pioneering full-color prints (nishiki-e) in about 1765, Harunobu also introduced pillar prints with atmospheric landscape backgrounds, or architectural settings (i.e., with diagonal beam-lines indicating perspective) during the last years of his life. In this print a youth (his adolescent forelock still unshaved above his forehead) and a man, hooded to conceal his identity, peer into the room of a high-ranking courtesan in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters. The man holds a fan inscribed with the name of a poet, Sashin, and a partly visible poem: haru / aki / iro / tsuki (spring, autumn, color, moon.)
