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
Goyo completed only 14 woodblock print designs before his death in 1921, making every genuine impression extraordinarily rare. His bijin-ga are among the most refined of the entire shin-hanga movement. "Woman at the Bath" achieved $40,075 at Bonhams New York in 2020; Sotheby's estimates of $15,000–$25,000 are typical for top examples.
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.
$1,980
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
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).
