Saint Mary
- Date:
- November 1924
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 27.2 × 12.4 cm
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
Description
Saint Mary appears in Yumeji's 1924 print with the large, sorrowful eyes of a Madonna — but with the eyes, the posture, and the emotional register of a Yumeji bijin. The Virgin Mary was, for Yumeji, a figure of compatible sensibility: a woman defined by love, suffering, and the sacrifice of the self to a larger feeling, all qualities he found in his own romantic figures. The 1924 date places the work in the late Taisho period, when Yumeji's engagement with Western religious imagery reached its greatest intensity.
More Prints by Takehisa Yumeji
More Religious Prints
The Great Buddha, Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu)
Kamakura Daibutsu
1930
Color woodblock print
Hall of the Great Buddha (Nara Daibutsuden)
1950
Color woodblock print
Great Buddha
大仏
Woodblock print
Clearing after a Snowfall at the Kannon Temple in Asakusa (Asakusa Kannon no yukibare), from the series "Twenty Views of Tokyo (Tokyo nijukkei)"
1926
Color woodblock print; oban
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Saint Mary was created by Takehisa Yumeji (竹久夢二) in November 1924.
Saint Mary depicts religious, bijin-ga, and portraits.
Saint Mary measures 27.2 × 12.4 cm (Oban format).