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Courtesan, Client, and Pet Monkey


遊女と客と小猿
Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1725–1770)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1768–69 (Meiwa 5–6)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical chûban; 28.7 x 21.7 cm (11 5/16 x 8 9/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19713
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

On a chilly evening in late fall or early winter, a courtesan entertains a favored client in her private room. Seated beside a small heating stove, she inscribes a poem as a memento of this happy occasion. Her pet monkey, with a collar, leash, and red vest, also sits near the heater eating a piece of fruit.

Catalogue Raisonné Waterhouse, The Harunobu Decade (2013), #359; Ukiyo-e shûka 4 (1979), list #641, and supp. 2 (1982), pl. 335
Signed Unsigned
無款
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.