Early Plum Blossom

A woman in a dark blue kimono with a green, salmon, and cream patterned obi kneels with her back to the viewer, her hair swept into a dark upswept coiffure ornamented with a white hairpin and small combs. Beside her lies an open book or album with red-bordered pages, and behind her a round fan or screen displays a painted branch of white plum blossoms against a pale ground. Rendered in muted blues, greens, and creams on silk, the composition is quiet and intimate, with a red seal and inscription at the lower right. Uemura Shoen's "Early Plum Blossom" is a Nihonga hanging scroll in natural mineral pigments on silk, year unknown.