Comments - Wonderful original Shunsen painting of kabuki actor Nakamura Utaemon as the courtesan Yugiri of the Yoshidaya Teahouse. She is in love with Izamemon, whose family has disowned him because of their relationship. She has made herself ill from wanting to see her sweetheart, and she looks down with a sorrowful expression, her lips tightly pressed together. She wears an outer gray kimono patterned with plum blossoms over a blue robe with a violet color, a robe with a lavender print collar, and finally a red robe with a white collar. Her hair is pulled back into two large loops, ornately styled with many hairpins and combs, a purple sash tied over her forehead. The expressive face is softly shaded with pink around the eyes. The white collar has an impressed pattern to suggest embossing in the print, and the circular motifs on the lavender collar feature metallic silver dots and impressed outlines, suggesting silver mica and embossing for the woodblock. The silver background has a subtle metallic sheen, to be rendered in mica in the print, as does the black hair, which might be burnished in the woodblock. Signed in upper left corner with red artist's seal. A beautiful, poignant image and an extremely rare original painting by Shunsen. A fantastic opportunity to purchase an original painting by this shin hanga kabuki master.

Artist - Natori Shunsen (1886 - 1960)

Size - 14 1/4" x 9 3/8" + margins as shown

Condition - This print with excellent color and detail as shown. Please see photos for details. Very nice overall.