Sleeping Beauty

Tagged within the [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga) tradition, Sleeping Beauty depicts a reclining or sleeping female figure, a pose with extensive precedent in late [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) and [Shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga), where artists such as Hashiguchi Goyo and Itō Shinsui treated women in private, unguarded moments. The title, drawn from the European fairy tale, signals Kristensen's habit of grafting Western reference onto Japanese pictorial form. Technically, the sleeping subject suits mokuhanga's strengths: long unbroken contours of body and bedding can be carried by a single keyblock, while skin tones and the textiles around the figure are built up through successive impressions, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations modeling cheek, shoulder, and drapery. The horizontal emphasis typical of reclining-figure compositions tends toward the yoko-e orientation. In the context of Kristensen's wider practice, which consistently reframes bijin-ga subjects through outside references, Sleeping Beauty sits alongside the Nude Test series as part of a sustained engagement with the genre's conventions of feminine beauty and repose.