Beauty Reading a Letter under a Mosquito Net
1795-98
A 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
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Sheet: 15 x 10 in. (38.1 x 25.4 cm)
Gift of Mary and Allan Kollar, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2017.23.9
Provenance: Collection 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: Susan Cole