Ink-drawing on paper. Japan, 1st half 19th cent.
This kind of studies and sketches are truly very rare to find. They provide a very interesting and deep insight into the artist’s innermost mind and nature of his creativity. In the field of the Japanese color woodblock prints the tendency towards reality grew more and more livelier in the first half of the 19th century. The most appreciated and innovating artists withdrew from the frozen and rather unrealistic portrait-style of the Ukiyoe. As shown in multiple sketch-books and drawings, the artists started to free the rather static portrayals from their stiff attitudes by bringing the characters to life. Now in their works, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi and their fellow artists strove to depict human characters from the real life,- living beings with broad faces, bulgy noses - extending, stretching and moving to all sides; characters of the “low city†(shitamachi) - laughing, crying, wheezing, sweating and swearing; unrestrained gazing females displaying obvious gestures; half-naked kulis and jugglers and many more. By their brush-strokes even the creatures out of legends and poems experienced a colourful revival – new and far different from the former. Ukiyoe. SIZE 19,5 X 26,5 CM
From a German private collection