Vernissage
Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks

Suzuki Harunobu

Japanese, 1724–1770

Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks, c. 1767

Color woodblock print, with embossing

27 × 19.2 cm (10 ¾ × 7 ½ in.)

The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith

A girl steps onto a veranda after a bath to look at a pot of pinks. A warm breeze stirs the poem-strip tied to the windbell above her. Irises bloom in the pool in the background. The print has been identified as the summer subject in a set of four flowers representing each season and is considered to be one of Harunobu’s most enchanting designs. One of the most celebrated and productive of all ukiyo-e artists, Harunobu is widely recognized as the first Japanese printmaker to create designs by printing each color in the image with a different block. These prints came to be known as nishiki-e, or brocade pictures, suggesting their resemblance to the gorgeous brocades worn at the time. The embossing on the waves in the stream and on the flowers was created by using unpigmented blocks during the printing process.

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More by Suzuki Harunobu

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Night Rain at the Double-Shelf Stand, from the series Eight Parlor Views (Zashiki hakkei)
Righteousness, from The Five Virtues
Passing the Bamboo Grove
Courtesan Dreaming of her Childhood
Young Man Playing Football
The Courtesan (From A Collection of Beautiful Women of the Yoshiwara)
Young Woman Admiring a Snow Rabbit
Woman (Bijin) Looking at the Moon's Reflection, from the series Mu Tamagawa
Woman Watching Young Couple Embrace on a Veranda
Woman and Maid Servant
A Girl Dressing in Pink
Benevolence, from The Five Virtues

Hanging in