Spring Smelling Flowers

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Spring Smelling Flowers

Artist Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, ca. 1724-1770)

Dateabout 1768

Dimensionssheet: 10 15/16 x 8 1/8 in. (27.8 x 20.6 cm)

Mediumcolored woodblock print

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineCarrie L. Brown Bequest Fund

Object number

1951.283

Not on View

Label TextSuzuki Harunobu developed an idealized beauty type that became very popular in the late 18th century, spurring many imitators. In this composition, two lithe, graceful figures turn toward each other in a delicate exchange. The young girl abandons the badminton-type game she had been playing and reaches up to the geisha, who is holding a kitten in the bosom of her kimono. Harunobu’s scene of domestic comfort and affection between the courtesan and the young child—who herself will one day become a geisha—contains a touch of melancholy: the flowering plum tree for which the print is titled contrasts with the winter scene on the painted screen. The contrast is emphasized by the poem on the screen: Although everywhere the light of spring has come; still in the hills of Yoshino it is snowing.Published ReferencesHillier, Jack, Suzuki Harunobu: An Exhibition of his Colour-prints and Illustrated Books on the Occasion of the Bicentenary of his Death in 1770, September 18-November 22, 1970 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art), p. 159.

Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Suzuki Harunobu: An Exhibition of his Colour-prints and Illustrated Books on the Occasion of the Bicentenary of his Death in 1770, September 18-November 22, 1970.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Strong Women Beautiful Men: Japanese Portrait Prints from the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, October 14, 2005 - January 2, 2006, pl. 5 (col.), p. 33.

Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Strong Women Beautiful Men: Japanese Portrait Prints from the Toledo Museum of Art, August 28 - October 31, 2010, pl. 5 (col.), p. 33.