Two Women and a Puppy
A lady in a purple kimono with a subtle spiderweb pattern is walking towards the left of the viewer, holding what seems to be a scroll or bundle of papers inside her lavishly decorated brocade obi (sash). Her plump-faced attendant, looking distractedly to the side as if something had caught her sudden attention, is clad in a dark striped kimono with green obi; the bamboo design of the tassels of her apron-like outer garment echoes a similar pattern on the red undergarment of her lady. An adorable puppy observes the two women as they appear to float by.
Nagasawa Rosetsu’s idiosyncratic approach to painting beautiful women (bijinga) humorously turns the premise of the genre on its head by showing two ladies as actually not quite so beautiful. The benign, slightly amused expression of the little dog might reflect the sentiment of the artist towards the vanity of the self-absorbed townswomen.
Nagasawa Rosetsu’s idiosyncratic approach to painting beautiful women (bijinga) humorously turns the premise of the genre on its head by showing two ladies as actually not quite so beautiful. The benign, slightly amused expression of the little dog might reflect the sentiment of the artist towards the vanity of the self-absorbed townswomen.
Artwork Details
- 天明美人図
- Title: Two Women and a Puppy
- Artist: Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 (Japanese, 1754–1799)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: 1787–88
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 39 3/4 × 13 15/16 in. (101 × 35.4 cm)
Overall with mounting: 74 3/16 × 19 5/16 in. (188.5 × 49 cm)
Overall with knobs: 74 3/16 × 21 1/4 in. (188.5 × 54 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.300.205
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
More Artwork
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Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
second half of the 1790s
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
probably early 19th century
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
ca. 1794–95
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
1787–88
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
Minagawa Kien 皆川淇園
late 1780s
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