Painting (Ga), from an untitled series of the four accomplishments

An o-oban color woodblock print at the Art Institute of Chicago, dated c. 1772/75, this sheet represents 'Painting' (Ga) within the classical Chinese set of the Four Accomplishments of the literati (kinkishoga: zither, go, calligraphy, painting). The Four Accomplishments are usually allegorised in East Asian art through the figures of refined gentlemen at leisure, but in Edo ukiyo-e they were repeatedly reset as elegant women of the pleasure quarter or domestic interior pursuing the same activities. Toyoharu has produced an untitled series that follows this Edo convention: here a beauty engages with painting, brush in hand, in a composition designed to combine erudite literary reference with the visual appeal of a fashionable woman. The o-oban format gives the design unusual breadth and is appropriate for what was clearly an ambitious series intended for connoisseurs willing to read the literary allusions. The print confirms Toyoharu's command of the bijin-ga and elegant-pursuits genre alongside his better-known perspective experiments.