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Six Selected Actors (Yakusha rokkasen)


「役者六家選」
Kitagawa Utamaro I (Japanese, early 1750s–1806)
Japanese
Edo period
1789–1801 (Kansei era)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Hosoban triptych; 32.6 x 44.1 cm (12 13/16 x 17 3/8 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number21.17-9
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

Catalogue Raisonné MFA, Golden Age (2010), #91; Ukiyo-e shûka 3 (1978), list #660.1-3, pls. 87-9; Shibui, Ukiyo-e zuten Utamaro (1964), 219.1.1-3; Yoshida, Utamaro zenshû (1941), #141; Ukiyo-e taisei 7 (1931), #363
DescriptionTriptych: 21.17 (center), 21.18 (right), 21.19 (left)

Unidentified publisher's mark.
Signed Utamaro hitsu (on each sheet)
歌麿筆
Marks Censor's seal: kiwame
改印:極
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.