Posts by Richard Kruml:
Toensai KANSHI (Fl. mid-18th century)
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A rare, highly talented and enigmatic painter who produced only a few masterpieces. There is some confusion over his active working life with differing dates from 1748 to 1780, but he was certainly painting in the 1760s. This unusual composition shows a beauty adjusting her hair by obliquely looking in a mirror held by her maid who stares unnervingly straight at the viewer. This painting is well known and is illustrated in Nikuhitsu Ukiyoe, Collection of Ukiyo-e Paintings Classified by Artist and Schools, Vol. 4 (of 10): Katsukawa school, Suzuki Harunobu and Isoda Koryusai, pl. 83, edited and published by Shueisha, 1982. It is also mentioned on page 113 in Ukiyo-e Large Encyclopaedia, Vol. 2, edited by Japan Ukiyo-e Society, published by Taishukan, 1982. Another Kanshi painting showing a beauty collecting bamboo shoots in the snow was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, in 2014, in an exhibition: The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection.
Full colour on paper with mica on the mirror, image size 14.5 x 20 in; 37 x 51 cms. In extremely good condition with double box. Painted c 1765.
Status: Sold
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Kawamata TSUNEMASA (Fl. 1716-48)
Click here to view image full size. Shows a beautiful salt-water gatherer, her hut behind her on the seashore. A member of the Kawamata school, he probably worked in Kyoto and specialised in bijinga. Sumi and full colour on paper. Outlines picked out in gold. 32.5 x 10.5 in; 82.5 x 26.5 cms. Fine […]
Watanabe SEITEI (1851-1918)
Click here to view image full size. Two geese – possibly Greater White-fronted Geese ( although the legs should be a little more orange ) with tall reeds and a large misty moon. Sumi and light colour on silk, 43 x 16 in; 109 x 40.5 cms. Signed and sealed Seitei. In fine condition with […]
Tsukioka SETTEI (1710-1786)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, sumi and light blue on silk. Image size 38.75 x 14.25 in; 98.4 x 36.2 cms. Shows a carp leaping a waterfall. This was a favourite subject for Japanese artists being a symbol of achievement against adversity. Carp were bred for their colour in Japan […]
Katsushika HOKUSAI (1760-1849); Kyokutei BAKIN (1767-1848); Jippensha IKKU (1765-1831)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting by Hokusai showing the back view of a courtesan. Above are inscriptions by Bakin and Ikku, the two leading writers of the day. ( Bakin is famous for writing Chronicles of the Eight Dog Heroes of the Satomi Clan of Nanso and Ikku for writing […]
Utagawa HARUSADA (1830-1887)
Click here to view image full size. An exceptionally beautiful painting of a standing beauty by this pupil of Kuniyoshi. An ukiyo-e artist who worked in Kyoto. Real name Okamoto Syotaro. Full colour with touches of gold on silk. Image size 40.5 x 13.5 in; 102.8 x 34.2 cms. Very minor brown area otherwise in […]
Kubo SHUMMAN (1757-1820) and Kameda BOSAI (1752-1826)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting showing a parading oiran on the first day of the eighth month, Hassaku (hachigatsu sakuhi). It was common on this day to wear a white kimono. This festival still takes place in the Gion quarters of Kyoto. The calligraphy, above, is by Bosai (Hosai), an […]
Takehara SHUNCHOSAI (Fl. c 1772-1818)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting showing beauties enjoying the cool of the evening on the riverbank and shallows of the Komo-gawa in Kyoto. An exceptional and rare painting by an artist best known for his guides to Osaka and Kyoto, Miyako meisho zue and Naniwa no kagami, published 1778 and […]
Utagawa TOYOKUNI II (TOYOSHIGE) (1777-1835)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting on paper, unmounted, showing Asahina Saburo (Wada no Saburo Yoshihide), a famous warrior of the early Kamakura period (1185-1333). Image size 11.5 x 15.5 in; 29.2 x 39.5 cms. Signed Toyokuni suichu hitsu, “Toyokuni painted while being drunk.” Status: Sold
Matsumura KEIBUN (1779-1843)
Click here to view image full size. A fine gajo, 10.75 x 6.75 in; 27 x 17 cms, folding out to 10.75 x 13.5 in; 27 x 34 cms. Consisting of 24 paintings in sumi and light colour of birds, animals and fish, starting with the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac: Rat; Ox; Tiger; Hare; […]
Tsukioka SETTEI (1710-1786)
Click here to view image full size. A very fine large painting showing a standing beauty holding a cloth. At her feet is a fulling-block (kinuta) and several mallets. She looks skyward at the geese flying across the moon. One of the traditional symbols of autumn in Japan. There seems to have been a frisson […]
Tsukioka SETTEI (1710-1786)
Click here to view image full size. An interesting large painting, full colour on paper mounted on a wooden frame, 25.5 in; 62cms in diameter showing a bust portrait of a beauty with elaborate coiffure holding a child and a rattle. Although not signed, the attribution is unquestionable, painted between 1767-1773 in Osaka. It appears […]
Tsukioka SETTEI (1710-1786)
Click here to view image full size. An interesting large painting, full colour on paper mounted on a wooden frame, 25.5 in; 62cms in diameter showing a bust portrait of a beauty with elaborate coiffure and holding a hat for a street festival. Although not signed, the attribution is unquestionable, painted between 1767-1773 in Osaka. […]
Teisai HOKUBA (1771-1844)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting on silk in full colour. Image size 36.5 x 13.5 in; 92.75 x 34.25 cms. A fine painting showing beauties from different social strata: A farmer’s wife; a courtesan; an elegant wife; and a Heian period court beauty. Hokuba was one of the earliest and […]
Utagawa KUNINAO (1793-1854)
Click here to view image full size. Click here to view image full size. A pair of original paintings: One showing a beauty being followed by her servant down a jetty into a waiting boat. He protects her with an umbrella in one hand and carries food on a tray with the other. The whole […]
Utagawa HIROSHIGE (1826-1869)
Click here to view image full size. Click here to view image full size. A pair of original kakejiku with two paintings on each. Possibly from the front and back cover pages of a first edition “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo” set. Sumi and colour, image size of each painting 13.5 x 8.75 in; […]
Katsushika HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Click here to view image full size. A small original painting of an old sage (possibly the poet Saigyo Hoshi [1118-1190]) seated, holding a bamboo pole and with a large hat on his back. He looks up wistfully at a mountain range with what appears to be a hanging bridge over a gorge. Light colour […]
Tsukioka YOSHITOSHI (1839-1892)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, sumi and touches of red on paper, 26 x 11.5 in; 66 x 29.2 cms. A spontaneous painting of a beauty raising the hem of her kimono as she rushes to an appointment. Several small restorations only viewable obliquely, otherwise good condition. Signed in cursive […]
Hishikawa MORONOBU (C. 1618-1694)
Click here to view image full size. An important figure and pioneer of the ukiyo-e school. He was born into a family of embroiderers and textile dyers at Hota in Awa Province, but departed for Edo, c. 1658, to study painting. A prolific artist, he illustrated a large number of books, as well as being […]
Matsumura KEIBUN (1779-1843)
Click here to view image full size. A handscroll comprising twelve mostly nature studies. ( Four shown. ): An isolated village; redstart and camellia; a rock; iris; rose; bamboo; lobster; sparrow and begonia; a village covered in snow; a scholar reading; white camellia; hibiscus. Sumi and light colour on paper, 14 x 441.2 in; 35.5 […]
Katsushika HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting by Hokusai showing wild boars, a parent and baby. Another “Wild Boar in the Moonlight” painting is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acc. No. 11.7430, ex William Sturgis Bigelow collection. The same broad background brushstroke shading is found on both paintings. Illustrated in […]
Kishi RENZAN (1805-1859)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting by Renzan, also known as Gantoku. He was adopted by the Kishi family and trained by his father-in-law, Kishi Ganku, who founded the Kishi school. His fellow pupils were Yokoyama Kazan and Minwa Bumpo. After Ganku’s death, he became the leader of the school together […]
Teisai HOKUBA (1771-1844)
Click here to view image full size. A large original painting, full colour on paper, 49 x 22.5 in; 124.5 x 57 cms. Shows a beauty caught in an autumnal breeze, the tree above shedding its leaves. One of Hokusai’s earliest and best pupils and, apart from painting , is also known for his surimono […]
Tsuji HOZAN (Fl. 1820-1840)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, 31.5 x 12.5 in; 80 x 31.8 cms. Sumi and full colour on silk. The inscription on the inside of the box lid states that the painting is by Tsuji Hozan, a Shijo painter, and shows a “castle-toppling” courtesan under cherry blossom in the style […]
Kawamata TSUNEMASA (Fl. 1716-1751)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, sumi and full colour on paper, 27 x 10.5 in; 68.5 x 26.75 cms. Shows a parading courtesan with her kamuro. Tsunemasa’s small corpus of work shows him primarily painting portraits of beauties as well as mitate works alluding to classical themes. His delicate figures […]
Kitagawa UTAMARO II (Fl. c 1807-1830s)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, sumi and full colour on silk, 40.25 x 15.25 in; 102.25 x 38.75 cms. Shows a geisha reading a book and holding a shamisen likened to Manjusri (Japan: Monju), the bodhisattva of wisdom in Mahayana Buddhism. Often depicted riding or astride a lion representing the […]
Watanabe SEITEI ( 1852-1918 )
Click here to view image full size. Seitei ( Shotei ) specialised in kachoga; was famous in this area, and regarded as the leading exponent. Technically brilliant. Shows two tancho ( “red crest” ) Japanese cranes flying down to a field suffused with the yellow of ripening rice. This crane ( Grus japonensis ) is […]
Katsukawa SHUNSHO ( 1726-1792 )
Click here to view image full size. An extremely important painting by one of the most important artists of his day. One of the great ukiyo-e print designers – especially of actor prints. He lived in Edo and first studied under Katsukawa Shunsui and Ko Sukoku. Little is known of his private life. He had […]
Kawamura BUMPO (1779-1821)
Click here to view image full size. A pair of paintings, shosha and gyosha, a wood-chopper and fisherman in a mountainous landscape. Sumi on paper, image size 42.25 x 10.9 in; 108.3 x 27.7 cms. A highly talented Shijo painter and haiku poet who studied under Kishi Ganku and was much influenced by Chinese painting […]
Katsushika HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting showing the back view of a courtesan and her assistant. The poem is by Shokusanjin: It is all because of you who is blooming, flowers and the moon in this quarter seem prosperous Shokusanjin This appears to have been painted during his Sori period at […]
Ichiryusai HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, sumi on paper, 35 x 11 in; 88.9 x 28 cms. A view of Matsuchiyama from Imadobashi with bands of low lying mist. This area is depicted on many Hiroshige prints. Painted c. 1850. In very good condition. The mounting cloth is wasarasa, Japanese batik, […]
Manjiro HOKUGA (Fl. early to mid 19th century)
Click here to view image full size. A large original painting, full colour on silk, 11.5 x 34.5 in; 29.2 x 87.7 cms. Shows Tametomo, a famed archer of extraordinary strength who was exiled to Oshima by the Emperor. During his sojourn Tametomo discovered Onigashima, an island inhabited by devils who he subordinated. News of […]
Utagawa KUNISADA (1786-1864)
Click here to view image full size. A fine original fan painting showing a woman of Ohara; a mountain village north of Kyoto. These Oharame collected brushwood and firewood in the fall to sell in Kyoto. They are often depicted and obviously caused a stir when they entered Kyoto to ply their trade. The custom […]
Katsushika HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting showing Hotei, the God of happiness and one of the Seven Gods of Good Luck (Shichi-fuku-jin). The corpulent Hotei reclines contentedly smoking a long pipe. Beside him is his huge bag (hotei literally means “cloth bag”) which contained the treasures and food he dispersed. Sumi […]
Utagawa HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting in sumi with touches of green and pale blue. Image size 50 x 17 in; 127 x 43.2 cms on paper. Shows the Mount Haruna area which also has Mount Myogi and Mount Akagi. Depicts the strange peaks surrounded by swirling mist and cloud. The […]
Ichiryusai HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)
Click here to view image full size. A fine and important painting of the autumn moon at Ishiyama. Ishiyama Temple seen to the left and Seta Bridge to the right with Mount Fuji in the distance. The view is very close to that for the design Ishiyama no shugetsu, from the Omi Hakkei […]
Katsushika HOKUSAI (1760-1849)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, light colour on paper, 13 x 16.5 in; 33 x 42 cms. Shows a sparrow flying over a flowering plum tree. Light soil and creasing, but in generally good condition. Signed Hokusai suichu hitsu, “Hokusai painted while drunk.” Sealed Katsushika. (One of his better-known seals. […]
Tsukioka YOSHITOSHI (1839-1892)
Click here to view image full size. An original fan painting, sumi on treated paper, 17.5 x 5.5 in; 44.5 x 14 cms. Shows two dogs – possibly Chin. In very good condition: As nearly always, showing the rib folds of the fan. Tipped onto gold-speckled board. Signed and sealed Yoshitoshi. Status: Sold
Ichiryusai HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)
Click here to view image full size. An original painting, sumi and very light blue on silk, 40 x 15.25 in; 101.6 x 38.7 cms. Shows the moon reflected in the Tama river with spring ayu (sweet water fish) swimming beneath Japanese papyrus growing in the water. A beautiful painting. One small foxing mark, […]
Shibata GITO (1780-1819)
Click here to view image full size. A fine Shijo handscroll, sumi and light colour on paper, 11.13 x 423.5 in; 28.26 cm x 10.76 metres. Gito was an early pupil of Goshun who, although he died young, produced enough work to show him to be a highly gifted artist with great ability in landscape, […]