Woman Holding a Lip Brush
- Date:
- 1920 (Taishō 9), 9th month
- Medium:
- Modern Japanese woodblock print; ink, color, mica and gold on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 40.2 × 28.3 cm
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Edition:
- Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Harvard Art Museums
Description
A woman holding a lip brush — "benifude" — in the act of applying rouge to her lips, one of Goyo's most celebrated and frequently reproduced compositions. The image of a woman in the charged moment of self-adornment had a long history in Japanese bijin-ga, but Goyo transforms the conventional subject through his extraordinary attention to the quality of concentration on his subject's face: the slight forward lean, the delicate grip on the brush, the entire body's stillness as the eyes focus. Mica and gold pigments on paper give the image an additional luminosity.
Current Listings
$1,980
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Frequently Asked Questions
Woman Holding a Lip Brush was created by Hashiguchi Goyo (橋口五葉) in 1920 (Taishō 9), 9th month.
Woman Holding a Lip Brush was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1920 (Taishō 9), 9th month).
Woman Holding a Lip Brush depicts bijin-ga and calligraphy.
Woman Holding a Lip Brush measures 40.2 × 28.3 cm (Oban format).