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Photo: Susan Cole
Beauty Reading a Letter under a Mosquito Net
Photo: Susan Cole

Beauty Reading a Letter under a Mosquito Net

Date1795-98
Label TextA courtesan holds a love letter up to the light, the better to view it through a gauzy, greenish mosquito net. The drape of the lifted net echoes the fluid lines of her summer kimono, cascading softly on the surrounding tatami. Utamaro cleverly utilized the lantern as a blank white surface for his distinctive three-character signature, Utamaro hitsu, or "brushed by Utamaro." --Catherine Roche, Curatorial Associate, 2010
Object number2017.23.9
ProvenanceCollection of Tadamasa Hayashi (1853-1906), Japan, and Paris, France (date unknown); [Israel Goldman Japanese Prints, London, England], by 2004; purchased from gallery by Allan Kollar, Seattle, Washington, 2004; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2017
Photo CreditPhoto: Susan Cole
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5 - Sept. 9, 2007. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Fleeting Beauty: Japanese Woodblock Prints, Apr. 1 - July 4, 2010. Text by Catherine Roche. Cat. no. 24, reproduced p. 47. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Renegade Edo: Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec, July 21 - Dec. 3, 2023. Text by Xiaojin Wu. No cat. no., p. 102.
Credit LineGift of Mary and Allan Kollar, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
DimensionsSheet: 15 x 10 in. (38.1 x 25.4 cm)
MediumWoodblock print; ink and color on paper
Photo: Beth Mann
ca. 1800
Object number: 55.161
Top panel of mosquito net (kaya)
Japanese
19th century
Object number: 95.12
Photo: Colleen Kollar Zorn
Katsushika Hokusai
ca. 1838
Object number: 2010.47.5