Beauty representing spring, 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 [oban](/glossary/oban) color woodblock print ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)), held by the Art Institute of Chicago (reference 32977, Frederick W. Gookin Collection), is the spring sheet from Utagawa Kuniyasu's untitled four-seasons series of beauties, dated by the museum to c. 1818-1830. The composition follows the convention of the set: a single elegantly elongated female figure stands against a minimal ground, her seasonal identity established through subtle attributes — the patterns and motifs on her kimono, the accessories she carries, the springtime suggestions of cherry blossom or new growth woven into her dress — rather than through any overt landscape setting. The sheet measures 37.5 by 25.1 cm and is a representative example of Kuniyasu's mature Bunsei-era [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), in which the densely patterned robes, deep mineral pigments, and selective use of metallic and embossed surfaces characteristic of the most refined nishiki-e of the 1820s are deployed in service of a willowy female figure. The four-seasons set as a whole, of which the spring, autumn, and winter sheets all survive in the Gookin Collection, allows comparison across the series and is a useful documentary record of how a single designer translated the conventional schema into a coherent visual programme. The print belongs to the Frederick W. Gookin Collection, one of the foundational gifts of Japanese prints to the Art Institute of Chicago in the early twentieth century.
c. 1820s
Color woodblock print; sheet from oban pentaptych
early 19th century
Monochrome woodblock print; ink on paper
c. 1818/30
Color woodblock print; oban
early 19th century
Color woodblock print
Beauty representing spring, 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 spring, from an untitled series of beauties representing the four seasons depicts spring.
