Beauty representing autumn, from an untitled series of beauties representing the four seasons
- Date:
- c. 1818/30
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
This color woodblock print ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)) in [oban](/glossary/oban) format, held by the Art Institute of Chicago (reference 32974, Frederick W. Gookin Collection), is the autumn sheet from Utagawa Kuniyasu's untitled series of beauties representing the four seasons, dated by the museum to c. 1818-1830. Each print in the series places a single elegantly elongated female figure against a sparse ground, with the seasonal reference carried by accessories, robe patterning, and pose rather than by an overt landscape setting. The autumn beauty wears a kimono whose densely patterned surface displays the close-grained decorative detailing characteristic of mature Bunsei-era [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), with the deep mineral pigments and selective embossing that distinguished the period's most refined polychrome printing. The series belongs to the long Edo tradition of "four seasons" beauty sets, an inherited compositional schema that allowed designers to demonstrate their command of mood and decorative variation across a uniform format. Kuniyasu's contribution, produced during his most accomplished decade as a bijin-ga designer, presents the Edo townswoman in the willowy idiom that distinguishes his mature personal style from his Utagawa-school peers. The sheet measures 37.5 by 25 cm and entered the Art Institute's collection through Gookin, one of the founding figures of American collecting of Japanese prints in the early twentieth century. It is a representative example of Kuniyasu's late-Bunka and Bunsei-era practice in the standard oban format and a key document of the elaborate decorative bijin-ga produced in Edo during the 1820s.
c. 1818/30
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1820s
Color woodblock print; sheet from oban pentaptych
early 19th century
Monochrome woodblock print; ink on paper
early 19th century
Color woodblock print
Noka no aki (Miyagi ken Ayashi
1946
Color woodblock print
Woodblock print
1950
Color woodblock print
Autumn 1920
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Beauty representing autumn, from an untitled series of beauties representing the four seasons was created by Utagawa Kuniyasu (歌川国安) in c. 1818/30.
Beauty representing autumn, from an untitled series of beauties representing the four seasons depicts autumn foliage.