Cleaning Combs
c. late 1790s
Kitagawa Utamaro
Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806)
Japanese Art
Cleaning Combs, c. late 1790s. Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806). Color woodblock print; sheet: 38.2 x 25.4 cm (15 1/16 x 10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore 1930.216 In this print, a mother who has put up her child's hair into a neat bun cleans the comb. By the latter part of the Kansei era, or 1789-1801, Utamaro was frequently incorporating the activities of daily life into his images of beauties. Beyond serving as portraits, and depicting the bonds between mothers and children, the prints also take the view of a detached observer in their representations of everyday settings.
- Maker/Artist
- Kitagawa Utamaro
- Classification
- Formatted Medium
- color woodblock print
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 38.2 x 25.4 cm (15 1/16 x 10 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: Signature: Utamaro hitsu Publisher: Omiya Gonkuro (Omiya, emblem)
- Departments
- Japanese Art
- Accession Number
- 1930.216
- Credit Line
- Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore
- Exhibitions
- Japanese Prints from the Museum Collection, Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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