Live Auction 13988Art of Japan
KATSUKAWA SHUNRIN (LATE 18TH CENTURY)
Lot 103

KATSUKAWA SHUNRIN (LATE 18TH CENTURY)

BEAUTY AND ATTENDANT ADMIRING CHRYSANTHEMUMS

Closed5 December 2017

Price Realised

GBP 27,500

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KATSUKAWA SHUNRIN (LATE 18TH CENTURY)
BEAUTY AND ATTENDANT ADMIRING CHRYSANTHEMUMS
Hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, signed Katsukawa Shunrin ga, sealed Shunrin

A beauty and her attendant are admiring a garden of chrysanthemums in winter, the young beauty is dressed in an elaborate black kimono decorated with snow-topped bamboo, the attendant is facing towards the chrysanthemums wearing a blue-patterned heavy winter kimono, the beauties and chrysanthemum flowers are painted in fine detail, the chrysanthemum leaves and the dark clouds overhead are painted in sumi-e style, the chrysanthemum leaves and the dark clouds overhead are painted in sumi-e style; the painting offered with an original copy of the auction catalogue in which it was sold in 1933, Ukiyoe and Shijo school paintings sale from the collection treasured by William Sturgis Bigelow (1850-1926)

67 x 32.5 cm.

William Sturgis Bigelow (1850-1926)

Specialist note

William Sturgis Bigelow, along with Ernest Fenollosa, was a pioneer collector and connoisseur of Japanese art, as well as one of the first Americans to study Japanese culture. From 1881 to 1889 he resided in Japan and focused on gathering an extensive collection of artworks chosen for their cultural importance and demonstration of artistic achievement. When he returned to the United States, he donated over 40,000 Japanese objects and artworks to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Shunrin was a pupil of the ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunsho.

For similar examples by Shunrin, see:
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession numbers 11.7757, 11.7758, 11.7759. https://www.mfa.org/collections/search?f[0]=field_artists%253Afield_artist%3A12021

The Price Collection. (Tokyo, 2006), Images 82 - 83 (p. 179 - 180)