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No. 8, from the series Letters of Beautiful Courtesans (Keisei fumi no sugata)


「契情婦美姿 八」
Kitagawa Utamaro I (Japanese, early 1750s–1806)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1782 (Tenmei 2)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical chûban; 21.6 x 16.3 cm (8 1/2 x 6 7/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19995
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné MFA, Golden Age (2010), #39; Ukiyo-e shûka 3 (1978), list #617.3, pl. 17; other prints in the series: Asano & Clark, Passionate Art (1995), #20; Yoshida, Utamaro zenshû (1941), #31
Signed Utamaro ga
歌麿画
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 - d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: August 3, 1911)

NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.