Beauty Reading a Letter under a Mosquito Net

1795-98

Japanese, 1754 - 1806

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

Not currently on view

Resources

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.

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