Picture of the Middle Class (Chubon no zu), from the series Three Ranks of Young Women according to Their Fashions (Fuzoku sandan musume)
ca. 1795
The figures in this Utamaro print are stylish women of the urban middle class, probably the well-to-do daughters of an Edo merchant. Wearing loose summer robes, they are admiring a sweet flag plant in a water basin. The courtesans of the Yoshiwara district were trendsetters, and wealthy commoners like these young women of the middle class quickly adopted their tastes in fashion.
--Catherine Roche, Curatorial Associate, 2010
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
15 3/8 x 10 1/2 in. (39.1 x 26.7 cm)
Gift of Mary and Allan Kollar, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2017.23.5
Provenance: Collection of Florine Ebstein Langweil (1861-1958), Paris, France; Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), Brussels, Belgium; [Sotheby’s, London, Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books & Paintings from The Adolphe Stoclet Collection, June 8, 2004, sale no. L04753, lot no. 206, reproduced p. 117]; purchased at auction by [Israel Goldman Japanese Prints, London, England]; purchased from gallery by Allan Kollar, Seattle, Washington, 2004; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2017
Photo: Susan Cole
