Reclining Beauty
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Harvard Art Museums
Typical Price
$400–$3,000. Common subjects: $400–$1,000. Key value factors: Kawanishi's Kobe port scenes are his most distinctive and collected subjects.
$400–$3,000. Common subjects: $400–$1,000. Key value factors: Kawanishi's Kobe port scenes are his most distinctive and collected subjects.
This woodblock print presents a female figure in a reclining pose, a subject that places Kawanishi within the bijin-ga tradition of depicting beautiful women while filtering it through his sosaku-hanga sensibility. The reclining pose, with its associations of rest, vulnerability, and sensuality, has a long history in both Japanese and Western art. Kawanishi likely renders the figure with the bold outlines and flattened color planes that characterize his style, departing from the delicate line work and idealized features of traditional bijin-ga. The sosaku-hanga movement's emphasis on individual expression over commercial appeal freed artists like Kawanishi to approach the female figure with personal stylistic conviction rather than conforming to publisher-driven standards of beauty. The result is a reclining beauty reshaped by modernist formal concerns.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Reclining Beauty was created by Hide Kawanishi (川西英).
Reclining Beauty depicts bijin-ga.
