Inside and Outside the Mosquito Net
Artist: Torii Kiyonaga (Japanese, 1752-1815)
Date: about 1784
Dimensions:
sheet: 15 x9 15/16 in. (38.1 x 25.2 cm)
Medium: color woodblock print
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Carrie L. Brown Bequest Fund
Object number: 1951.289
Label Text:In this design of an interior scene from a house of pleasure, two women who represent the period’s beauty ideals are shown attending to a guest lounging within an enclosed mosquito net. One of the courtesans, wearing a loose, revealing robe, is about to join the man inside the net.
Kiyonaga’s designs often included advanced woodblock carving and printing techniques such as the rendering of transparent surfaces. The use of an intricate crisscross pattern to simulate the mosquito netting allows the scene to continue behind the hanging mesh fabric and highlights the combined skills of the block carver and the printer to achieve such astonishing results.
Kiyonaga’s designs often included advanced woodblock carving and printing techniques such as the rendering of transparent surfaces. The use of an intricate crisscross pattern to simulate the mosquito netting allows the scene to continue behind the hanging mesh fabric and highlights the combined skills of the block carver and the printer to achieve such astonishing results.
Not on view
In Collection(s)