Double-page Illustration from Vol. 2 of "Picture Book of Spring Brocades (Ehon haru no nishiki)"
- Date:
- 1771
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; double-page illustration from book
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
This double-page illustration from Volume 2 of Ehon haru no nishiki (Picture Book of Spring Brocades), published in 1771, exemplifies Suzuki Harunobu's mastery of the illustrated book format during the height of his career. The title itself is a sly self-reference: nishiki-e, the full-color brocade prints that Harunobu had pioneered only a few years earlier in 1765, transformed Edo bijin-ga into a luxurious art form, and the 'spring brocades' of the title evoke both the seasonal subject and the printing technique that made his work famous. Spreading the composition across two facing pages, Harunobu organizes his figures and setting with the supple grace that defined his late style, allowing fabric patterns, garden details, and architectural framing to flow continuously across the gutter. His slender, doll-like figures, slim of limb and small of feature, occupy an idealized world that is neither strictly contemporary Edo nor wholly classical. Harunobu typically borrowed poses and gestures from earlier ukiyo-e masters and from classical Japanese poetry, but reframed them in domestic interiors and pleasure-quarter settings familiar to his urban audience. Although Harunobu died in 1770, picture books such as this one continued to appear posthumously, evidence of the strong commercial market his designs commanded. Held by the Art Institute of Chicago (artwork no. 13133), the sheet documents how nishiki-e techniques were extended from single-sheet prints into bound volumes, where layered color blocks, gauffrage, and fine line work could be deployed at album scale. As both a literary object and a printed picture, the work shows Harunobu's vision of refined Edo life translated into a portable, intimate format meant to be read and savored at close range.
1936
Color woodblock print; oban
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Woodblock print
1939
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Double-page Illustration from Vol. 2 of "Picture Book of Spring Brocades (Ehon haru no nishiki)" was created by Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信) in 1771.
Double-page Illustration from Vol. 2 of "Picture Book of Spring Brocades (Ehon haru no nishiki)" depicts spring.
