-
Photographic portrait of poet Joseph Brodsky, short half-length, turned to the left, with arms crossed on his breast. Pencil-signed on the mat: 7/45 • Mikhail Lemkhin; same inscription on the back of the print, and ink stamp ©Mikhail Lemkhin. Sitter: Joseph Brodsky [Иосиф Александрович Бродский ] (Russian-American-Jewish, 1940 – 1996). Size: mat: 35.7 x 43.3 cm; window: 19.5 x 23 cm; print: 20.3 x 25.3 cm. -
Offset lithography in back ink on paper, 448 x 448 mm, description by OMCA COLLECTIONS (Oakland Museum of California): The top edge of the poster has a stylized drawing of an eagle. Below, the poster has a drawing with eight male police officers and two female figures: one with the crown and torch of the Statue of Liberty, the other holding scales and wearing a blindfold in the style of personifications of justice. In the foreground of the drawing, one of the police officers is holding the liberty figure on the ground and raping her while a second officer holds one of her legs. In the background, the justice figure is being held up and raped by two officers. The rest of the police officers look at this scene and laugh or pat one another on the back. The bottom of the drawing is bordered by a semicircle of text that reads: "...WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL." [...] This provocative poster was described at a 1968 House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing as "one of the most vile, obscene pieces of literature that I have seen disseminated in San Francisco" by San Francisco Examiner reporter Edward S. Montgomery. Contributors: Frank Cieciorka (American, 1939 – 2008) – artist. -
Hand-coloured chromolithography on wove paper, 600 x 470 mm; black ink stamp “4921” to reverse, horizontal and vertical centrefolds. Image of Napoléon III on horseback, in a frame; lettering under the frame: 34 — Déposé | NAPOLÉON III | EMPEREUR DES FRANÇAIS. | Lith. de Gangel frères et P. Didion, à Metz. || Gangel frères et P. Didion (Metz) – printer/publisher. Paulin Didion (French, 1831 – 1879) -
Pictorial album of 41 etchings, incl. two portraits, by various engravers after Achille Devéria, printed on India paper (after letters) and pasted on thick wove paper, bound with tissue guards in half calf over marbled boards bordered gilt, spine decorated gilt, marbled endpapers; base paper and tissue guards are substantially foxed, images mostly intact. The title page and the subscription page are bound-in at the beginning and at the end, respectively. Title page: (in ornamental frame): COLLECTION | DE VIGNETTES | POUR LES ŒUVRES | DE | J.-J. ROUSSEAU | GRAVÉES | PAR MM. FORSTER, LAUGIER, LEROUX, MULLER, ETC. | D'APRÈS LES DESSINS DE DEVÉRIA. | (pasted over) ÉPREUVES CHOISIES, SUR PAPIER DE CHINE. | {publisher’s device} | A PARIS, | CHEZ DALIBON, LIBRAIRE | DE S. A. R. MGR LE DUC DE NEMOURS, | Palais-Royal, galerie de Nemours. | M DCCC XXV. | Under the frame: Le portrait de Mme de Warens étant terminé, nous y avons joint trois vignettes pour former la quatrième livraison. — Le portrait de | J.-J. Rousseau avec deux vignettes en formera une aussi ; de cette manière le nombre des livraisons reste le même. || This collection was published by Dalibon the same year as the 25-volume Rousseau's Œuvres completes. Related persons: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French, 1712 – 1778). Mme de Warens: Françoise-Louise de Warens [Louise Éléonore de la Tour du Pil] Swiss, 1699 – 1762). S.A.R. Mgr Le Duc de Nemours: Prince Louis of Orléans, Duke of Nemours [Louis Charles Philippe Raphaël d'Orléans] (French, 1814 – 1896). Contributors: François-Denis Dalibon (French, 1794 – 1853) – publisher. L'Imprimerie de Rignoux (Paris); Thomas-François Rignoux (1781 – 1863?) – printer. Achille Devéria (French, 1800 – 1857) – artist. Engravers : François Forster (French, 1790 – 1872) Jean Nicolas Laugier (French, 1785 – 1875) Jean Marie Leroux (French, 1788 – 1871) Henri Charles Müller (French, 1784 – 1845) Herbert König (German, 1820 – 1876) Louis Jean Désiré Delaistre (French, 1800 – 1871) Jean Louis Toussaint Caron (French, 1790 – 1832) Pierre Michel Adam (French, 1799 – 1853) Ferdinand Sébastien Goulu (French, 1796 – 1848) Jean-François Pourvoyeur (French, 1784 – 1851) Jean Baptiste Touzé (French, fl. 1810 – 1830) Narcisse Lecomte (French, 1794 – 1882) Louis Hercule Sisco (French, 1778 – 1861) Edme Jean Ruhierre (French, 1789 – fl. 1826) Auguste Thomas Marie Blanchard (French, 1819 – 1898) François Manceau (French, 1768 – after 1837) Gabriel Louis Lacour-Lestudier (French, 1800 – 1849) Fulley [Frilley?] Jean Jacques Frilley (French, 1797 – after 1850) Philippe Joseph Augustin Vallot (French, 1796 – 1870) Etienne Devilliers (French, 1784 – after 1844) Jean Bosq (French, fl. c. 1801 – 1844) Zachée Prévost (French, 1797 – 1861) Jean Baptiste Guyard II (French, 1787 – 1831/32) Antoine François Gelée (French, 1796-1860) Constant Louis Antoine Lorichon (French, 1800-1856?) Antoine Joseph Chollet (French, 1793 – after 1848) Adrien Migneret (French, 1786 – 1840) Alfred Johannot (French, 1800 – 1837) Arnold Jéhotte (French, 1789 – 1836) Hippolyte Prudhomme (French, 1793 – 1853) Achille Lefèvre (French, 1798 – 1864) Pierre Pelée (French, 1801 – 1871) Antoine [Tony] Johannot (French, 1803 – 1852) Pierre Joseph Tavernier (French, 1787 – after 1845) Leclerc (?) Levasseur (?) -
Utagawa Toyokuni (歌川豐國); 1769 – 24 February 1825. Actor Onoe Matsusuke II as Katsugiino (right), actor Sawamura Tanosuke II as Otsuyu (left) 尾上松助（二代目）in a role かつぎいの; 沢村田之助（二代目) in a role おつゆ. Play: "Yuki to Tsuki Hana no Kuronushi". Theater: Nakamura. Publisher: Mikawaua Seiemon (1805-1829) [Marks: 328]. Circa 1810. -
-
Portrait of Russian actress Maria Gavrilovna Savina, a lithograph on tan paper, by artist Osip Braz, 1900.
Maria Gavrilovna Savina (Мария Гавриловна Савина), a renowned Russian stage actress, born as Maria Podramentsova (Подраменцова) on April 11, 1854 in Kamianets-Podilskyi (Ukraine, Russian Empire) and died on September 21, 1915, in Saint Petersburg. Osip Emmanuilovich Braz (Осип Эммануилович Браз; 16 January 1873 in Odessa - 6 November 1936 near Paris) was a Russian painter of Jewish descent. Imprisoned by the Soviets in 1924 (the Solovki special prison-camp), released in 1926 and emigrated to Germany in 1928. Married to Lola Landshoff. http://russia-ic.com/people/culture_art/b/805/ "All his family members suffered from severe tuberculosis. After losing his wife Lola Lantsgof and both sons, he spent the last year of his life alone. Osip Braz passed away on November 6, 1936, and was laid down to rest at the Bagneux Cemetery in Paris." Buried at Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France. -
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞]; a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. C. 1845 – 1847), seal: San [三] (Marks 11-001 | 127c). Block carver: Matsushima Fusajirō [松嶋房次郎] (Japanese, fl. 1843 – 1850); seal [彫工房] – Hori kō Fusa. Double nanushi censor seal: Kunigasa & Watanabe (1849-50). Actor: Ichikawa Danjūrō VII [市川団十郎] (Japanese, 1791 – 1859); other names: Ichikawa Ebizō V [市川海老蔵], Ichikawa Hakuen II, Ichikawa Shinnosuke I. Play: Yukari no Hana Iro mo Yoshiwara [紫花色吉原], performed at the Kawarazaki Theater (Edo) from the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of Kaei 3 (1850) (see Kabuki Playbill at MFA (Boston) № 11.27996).
Sano Jirōzaemon [佐野次郎左衛門] – provincial commoner who killed a famous Yoshiwara courtesan named ManjiyaYatsuhashi [万字屋 八ツ橋] (on the second sheet of the pair):
Another Kunisada's print with the same characters in the same play and same performance can be seen at MFA (Boston) № 11.40190.
SVJP-0298.2019: Ichikawa Ebizō V as Sano Jirōzaemon.
SVJP-0297.2019: Iwai Kumesaburō III as Manjiya Yatsuhashi
One more example can be seen at the two upper images in Waseda University Cultural Resources Database, № 006-2707:
-
An uncut fan print shows a young woman holding a basket on a landscape background with hills and pines under a rising sun. Haruo Shirane: "Under the luni-solar calendar, the New Year coincided with the beginning of spring, making it the most important observance of the year for the aristocracy. In the Heian period, New Year ceremonies extended from New Year’s Day (Ganjitsu) to the Day of the Rat (Nenohi), which usually fell on the seventh day of the First Month, when courtiers went out to the fields (no), pulled up small pines, and gathered new herbs (wakana) as a prayer for long life. This ritual gradually spread to the provinces and to commoners, eventually resulting in the New Year practice of the gate pine (kadomatsu), in which a pair of small pines was placed at the gate of a house. A popular Heian-period painting topic representing the First Month was “prayers on the Day of the Rat” (Nenohi no asobi), which depicted the auspicious scene of pulling up small pines in a spring field. Both young herbs and gathering young herbs, particularly at Kasuga Field, became major poetic topics for the First Month, appearing in both the spring and celebration (ga) books of the Kokinshū (Collection of Japanese Poems Old and New, ca. 905). By the Kamakura period, the observance of the Day of the Rat had been abandoned at the imperial court, but the custom of gathering and eating young greens continued as the annual ceremony known as the Seven Grasses (Nanakusa). Note: The Heian-period ritual of pulling up the roots of small pines (komatsu ) on the first Day of the Rat derives from the homonyms ne (rat) and ne (root). Pulling up roots was auspicious, since it implied lengthening the year. The rising sun (hinode) was considered an auspicious sight, particularly at the beginning of the year". [Haruo Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons. Nature, Literature, and the Arts. — Columbia University, NY, 2012]. Title: Gathering of the young herbs on the Day of the Rat [子の日乃若菜] (Nenohi no wakana). Series: Three elegant sources of light [風流三光の内] (fūryū sankō no uchi); meaning the sun, the moon and the stars). Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞]; a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a yellow toshidama cartouche. Publisher’s seal: Izuzen (Marks: seal 06-029 | U103b) Date and double nanushi censor seals: Mera and Watanabe, Kaei 6 (1853). A similar theme can be found in Kunisadai's triptych published in about 1844 (HARA SHOBO):
豊国三代「豊歳子日若菜摘ノ図」
-
Title: NIEUWE KAART | der platte Grond van de Stad | PARYS | en derzelver Voorsteden. | Met aanwyzing van de Kwartieren, Staaten, | Markten, Pleinen, Paleizen, Abtyden, Kerken, | Kloosters en andere voornaame Gebouwen. | Na het Origineel van | M. DE LA GRIVE. | Te Amsterdam by | I. Tirion. | 1756. ||
Author : Jean Delagrive (French, 1689-1757)
Publisher: Isaak Tirion (Dutch, 1705 – 1765)
Publication date: 1756.
Dimensions: Sheet: 42.5 x 53.8 cm; Image: 30.7 x 37.7 cm.
Plate № 59 from Beknopte Atlas van omtrent honderd platte gronden der voornaamste vestingen, kasteelen en Steden van Europa. -
Artist (character): Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Artist (landscape): Utagawa Kunihisa II [歌川国久] (Japanese, 1832 – 1981), a.k.a. Katsuda Hisatarō, Ichiunsai, Ritchōrō, Toyonobu, Yōryūsai, Yōsai. Block carver: Matsushima Masakichi (Japanese, fl. c. 1847-65); seal: [松嶋彫政] – Matsushima Hori Masa (Frieze, 2009: 142) Publisher: Iseya Magobei [伊勢屋孫兵衛] (Japanese, fl. c. 1794 – 1868). Signed: By the brush of Toyokuni at the age of 78 [七十八歳豊国筆] (Nanajūhachi-sai Toyokuni hitsu) – in a red toshidama cartouche (left). Signed: Landscape by Kunihisa [景色 国久画] (Keshiki Kunihisa ga) (right). Actor: Nakamura Shikan IV [中村芝翫] (Japanese, 1831 – 1899); other names: Nakamura Fukusuke I, Nakamura Masanosuke I, Nakamura Komasaburō, Nakamura Tamatarō I. Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: [亥極] – Bunkyū 3 (1863) Tasogare (literally, twilight] [たそがれ] is a character in the novel Rustic Genji and a role in various kabuki plays. Fake Murasaki’s Rustic Genji [偐紫田舎源氏] (Nise Murasaki inaka Genji) is a literary parody written by Ryutei Tanehiko [柳亭種彦] (Japanese, 1783 – 1842). According to Horst Graebner, this must be a mitate print because there was no known performance of this play in 1863. -
Artist: Utagawa Sadahide [歌川 貞秀], a.k.a. Gountei Sadahide [五雲亭 貞秀] (1807 – c. 1878/9). Signed: Gountei Sadahide ga [五雲亭貞秀画] Pubisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, 1815 – 1869) Date-aratame seal: Bunsei 13 / Tenpō 1 (1830). Ref: Ritsumeikan University # Z0172-587. Title: Tangled Hair and the Evening Braided Hat [乱髪夜編笠] (Midaregami Yoru no Amigasa). The open book starts with the chapter title that reads Amigasa. This play was performed together with Kisohajime Hatsugai Soga [着衣始]初買曽我]. See the playbill for the performance at Moritaza at MFA (Boston) № 11.27208. 乱髪夜編笠（みだれがみよるのあみがさ。「夜の編笠」「白さぎ」とも）– one of the main melodies in katōbushi (河東節) type of jōruri [浄瑠璃]. For a detailed explanation in Japanese, see also HERE). A series of three prints is dedicated to a katōbushi performance of the Soga-themed plays.
They all have a background of hail patterns (Arare-ko-mon) [霰小紋], similar to Kunisada’s Iwai Kumesaburō II as An no Heibei [SVJP-0304.2019], see below.Yukari no Edo-zakura The tatami night robe of Iwao Tangled Hair and the Evening Braided Hat 
-
Kabuki actor Arashi Kichisaburō III [嵐吉三郎] as Sarushima Sōta [猿島惣太] in the play Hanamo Yoshida Iwao no Matsuwaka [花吉田岩尾松若] staged at Ichimura-za (市村座), theatre in Edo. Artist: Utagawa Kunisada, a.k.a. Toyokuni III (Japanese, 1786 – 1865) [歌川 国貞]. Publisher: Kojimaya Jūbei (Japanese, 1797-1869), seal: Hanmoto, Jū [板元, 十] (Marks 19-043 | 264c. Date seal and double nanushi censor seals Mera & Watanabe – 3rd month of Kaei 6 (1853). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Media: Fan print (uchiwa-e), 223 x 294 mm. Kabuki actor Arashi Kichisaburō III [嵐吉三郎] (Japanese, 1810 – 1864); other names: Arashi Daizaburō III, Arashi Kitsusaburō III Ref.: Art shop Ezoshi Ukiyoe new collection news, vol. 66, 2023.1 (Jan) # 30, p.8. -
Hand-coloured woodcut on wove paper, 440 x 285 mm; black ink stamp “5049” to reverse. Top left: "AMIRAL"; right: "349". Below: "Imagerie de DIDION, à Metz, DELHALT Successeur." — "Déposé." Paulin Didion (French, 1831 – 1879) – publisher/printer. -
Watercolour on wove paper, 243 x 161 mm, black ink stamp to verso: “Nachlaß O R SCHATS”. Attributed to Otto Rudolf Schatz (Austrian, 1900 – 1961). -
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Block cutter: Horikō (Kiyomizu) Ryūzō [彫工 柳三]. Publisher: Ebisuya Shoshichi [恵比寿屋庄七], Kinshōdō (Japanese, fl. c. 1846 – 1883). Actor Morita Kan'ya XI as Saito Tarozaemon Toshiyuki (Morito Kan'ya, Saito Tarozaemon Toshiyuki) Signed Toyokuni ga within the artist's Toshidama cartouche, publisher's seal Sho, Kinshodo, carver's seal Horiko Ryusan, censor's seal aratame with date 1860, 3rd month. Date: 3/1860. Oban tate-e; 36.5 x 25.3 cm. The actor Morita Kan'ya XI (1802-1863) is in the role of Saito Tarozaemon Toshiyuki from the play Oto no Miya Asahi no Yoroi (Oto no Miyo and the Armor of the Rising Sun). The play picks up following the Genko War of 1331-33 in which Emperor Go-Daigo (1288-1339) led a failed uprising against the ruling Hojo clan. Tarozaemon was a Hojo warlord and is credited with much of the victory. After the conflict, his lord Norisada receives a summer festival lantern from the courtesan Sanmi-no-Tsubone, which bears a riddling inscription. He and Tarozaemon deliberate over the courtesan and her message for quite some time until they realize that she is attempting to manipulate Norisada in the hopes of returning the Emperor from exile. Following this revelation, Norisada reinterprets the message to mean kiriko, literally "to cut a child," and determines that Sanmi-no-Tsubone's son must be killed. He instructs Tarozaemon to do the deed. However, unbeknownst to Norisada and in spite of his allegiance to the Hojo clan, Tarozaemon is sympathetic to Sanmi-no-Tsubone and her son. At one time, his own daughter had served in the Imperial Palace and was spared execution only through Sanmi-no-Tsubone's intervention. As repayment of that debt, he kills his own grandson in the other boy's stead and returns to Norisada to report that he had accomplished the mission. This print is from a series of portraits that Kunisada undertook very late in life and has been named Kinshodo-ban yakusha okubi-e (Kinshodo's Large-Head Actor Portraits) in reference to the publisher, Ebisuya Shochochi of Kinshodo. The series depicted great actors from the past and present in their famous roles. Kunisada was guided by images from his own oeuvre: he recorded Kan'ya in this role in the 8th month of 1829. As this was meant to be Kunisada's grandest actor series, it was executed on thick paper with the best possible pigments and the highest level of craftsmanship. In this unusual frontal portrait, Kunisada presents Morita Kan'ya XI as the loyal Tarozaemon with his eyes rolling upward and his jaw set in grim determination to commit the unthinkable act in an ultimate display of samurai honour. Text by Scholten Japanese Art, New York. Ref.: Waseda University Theatre Museum (enpaku.waseda.ac.jp), accession no. 100-5261 (for 1829 portrait of the same); [LIB-1212.2017] Robert Schaap. Kunisada: Imaging, drama and beauty. — Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2016, p. 165 (№ 16). Andreas Marks. Publishers of Japanese woodblock prints: A compendium. Ebisuya Shoshichi (1846-83) - P6032. -
Ebisu drawing wakamizu, the first water drawn from a well on the New Year. Kitao Shigemasa (北尾 重政, 1739 – 8 March 1820). Signed: Shigemasa. Publisher's mark: Nishimuraya Yohachi.References:
Jacob Pins #547 [p.217] - Ebisu drawing wakamizu, the first water drawn from a well on the New Year. TNM II (Tokyo National Museum Catalogue vol. 2) #1373.
-
Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞], a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō [横川竹二郎] (Japanese, fl. 1845 – 1863), seal: 彫竹 – Hori Take. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1845 – 1847). Combined date and kiwame seal: Ansei 5 (II-XII/1858). Size: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 300 x 232 mm.A young woman adjusting her hairpin on a balcony during the Tanabata festival, as inscribed on the white folding fan: [七夕] (Tanabata).
Inscription on the blue book (print title): Early autumn [はつ秋や] (hatsu akiya), inscription on the purple book (series title): Short love songs, second volume [端唄の意 二編] (Hauta no kokoro nihen). According to Marks (2010), Hauta no kokoro nihen series of fan prints was published by Ibaya in 1858 (p. 267|P6871).
The series refers to love songs of a certain type popular in late Edo. They were performed with the accompaniment of a shamisen, “Seven herbs of autumn, the song of the insects is not heard; the bodies of lightning bugs are burnt, and the precious writings of love are getting thinner like the song of the insects as I am waiting for you. So, on an early autumn evening, I spot the glitter of a lightning bug that lingered among the autumn grasses, and while listening to the pine cricket, I am singing with my heart troubled by love". [Tokyo National Museum; translation provided by Elena Varshavsky].Tanabata [たなばた] or [七夕] – meaning "Evening of the seventh", also known as the Star Festival [星祭] (Hoshi matsuri) – is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. One popular Tanabata custom is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper and hang that piece of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree, in the hope that the wishes become true.
