Beauty at bath
- Date:
- Not dated
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- wbp
$1,500–$10,000. Beauty prints by this artist are particularly sought after. Good bijin-ga and illustrations: $3,000–$6,000. Key value factors: Settai's literary elegance and refined technique have a niche but devoted following among collectors of Japanese aestheticism.
A woman at her bath is the subject of this undated oban woodblock print, placing it squarely within the bijin-ga tradition that Komura Settai helped reinvent for the twentieth century. The bathing beauty was a venerable ukiyo-e motif, treated by masters from Utamaro to Hashiguchi Goyo, and Settai's version balances sensuality with formal restraint. His line work traces the figure's contours with calligraphic assurance, the brush-derived curves of shoulder, arm, and hair rendered into carved lines that retain their fluidity. The intimate subject allowed Settai to explore the fall of fabric, the texture of skin, and the play of steam or water with the precision that defined his approach to the female figure.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Beauty at bath was created by Komura Settai (小村雪岱) in Not dated.
Beauty at bath was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (Not dated).
Beauty at bath depicts bijin-ga.
