Exhibition catalog of the Guimet Museum.
Japan: Images of actors. 18th-century Kabuki prints.
National Museum of Asian Arts, with the Guimet Museum.
Regular price
€10,00
| N° d'inventaire | 26136 |
| Format | 17 x 24 |
| Détails | 48 p., illustrated, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2015 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782711862993 |
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Japan, Images of Actors, Prints from Kabuki in the 18th Century, Guimet Museum from April 15 to July 6, 2015.
In the last twenty years of the 18th century, the delicate beauties of the "poet of the feminine" Suzuki Harunobu (circa 1725 - 1770) gave way to those of other painters, first and foremost Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 - 1806).
In turn, immortalizing feminine graces, he created a new genre of Japanese prints: that of the portrait (ôkubi-e).
The art of portraiture was therefore primarily concerned with depictions of feminine beauty, and became a favorite subject of painters. Despite the stylized close-up representations of faces, the public recognized these beautiful women, who sometimes became, thanks to this medium, real celebrities and whose first names could appear on the print.
These female portraits were also vectors for the dissemination of fashion, women finding models of hairstyles or makeup then in vogue in them. Finally, tea shops or even, later, pleasure houses that employed these women found a perfect advertising medium in them...
Theater actors, especially kabuki actors, also benefited from the wide distribution possibilities offered by ôkubi-e: like courtesans, actors enjoyed great prestige, were adored by an audience that followed their careers and took them as models. When one of these celebrities died, they were mourned, and people consoled themselves by buying prints of their likeness. But the actor could also be the subject of caricatured portraits, to amuse this same general public...
The book presents an exceptional selection of masterpieces preserved at the Guimet Museum, presented during a temporary exhibition.
In the last twenty years of the 18th century, the delicate beauties of the "poet of the feminine" Suzuki Harunobu (circa 1725 - 1770) gave way to those of other painters, first and foremost Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 - 1806).
In turn, immortalizing feminine graces, he created a new genre of Japanese prints: that of the portrait (ôkubi-e).
The art of portraiture was therefore primarily concerned with depictions of feminine beauty, and became a favorite subject of painters. Despite the stylized close-up representations of faces, the public recognized these beautiful women, who sometimes became, thanks to this medium, real celebrities and whose first names could appear on the print.
These female portraits were also vectors for the dissemination of fashion, women finding models of hairstyles or makeup then in vogue in them. Finally, tea shops or even, later, pleasure houses that employed these women found a perfect advertising medium in them...
Theater actors, especially kabuki actors, also benefited from the wide distribution possibilities offered by ôkubi-e: like courtesans, actors enjoyed great prestige, were adored by an audience that followed their careers and took them as models. When one of these celebrities died, they were mourned, and people consoled themselves by buying prints of their likeness. But the actor could also be the subject of caricatured portraits, to amuse this same general public...
The book presents an exceptional selection of masterpieces preserved at the Guimet Museum, presented during a temporary exhibition.
In the last twenty years of the 18th century, the delicate beauties of the "poet of the feminine" Suzuki Harunobu (circa 1725 - 1770) gave way to those of other painters, first and foremost Kitagawa Utamaro (1753 - 1806).
In turn, immortalizing feminine graces, he created a new genre of Japanese prints: that of the portrait (ôkubi-e).
The art of portraiture was therefore primarily concerned with depictions of feminine beauty, and became a favorite subject of painters. Despite the stylized close-up representations of faces, the public recognized these beautiful women, who sometimes became, thanks to this medium, real celebrities and whose first names could appear on the print.
These female portraits were also vectors for the dissemination of fashion, women finding models of hairstyles or makeup then in vogue in them. Finally, tea shops or even, later, pleasure houses that employed these women found a perfect advertising medium in them...
Theater actors, especially kabuki actors, also benefited from the wide distribution possibilities offered by ôkubi-e: like courtesans, actors enjoyed great prestige, were adored by an audience that followed their careers and took them as models. When one of these celebrities died, they were mourned, and people consoled themselves by buying prints of their likeness. But the actor could also be the subject of caricatured portraits, to amuse this same general public...
The book presents an exceptional selection of masterpieces preserved at the Guimet Museum, presented during a temporary exhibition.