Courtesan Painting a Screen, from a series of 12 erotic prints

This hand-colored oban sumizuri-e of around 1711 belongs to a series of twelve shunga (erotic prints) by Kiyonobu, depicting episodes from the inner life of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter. The image shows a courtesan painting a folding screen, a moment of cultivated leisure that establishes her as not merely a sexual companion but a refined artistic personage capable of producing fine ink painting. Shunga formed a substantial portion of the Edo print market across the entire eighteenth century, with major artists - Kiyonobu among them - regularly contributing series to this clandestine but widely circulated genre. The line work in this sheet, applied to the figure of the courtesan and the painted screen alike, demonstrates the high degree of finish Kiyonobu reserved for his book-format productions. From the Art Institute of Chicago.