Template:POTD/2019-11-03

Picture of the day

Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica. The term ukiyo-e translates as 'picture[s] of the floating world'.

This picture is a colour woodblock print (chūban) entitled Two Lovers Beneath an Umbrella in the Snow, produced by ukiyo-e artist Suzuki Harunobu around 1767 and now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. His delicate, romantic prints were amongst the first to realize expressive and complex colour designs, printed with up to a dozen separate blocks to handle the different colours and half-tones. His restrained, graceful prints invoked the classicism of waka poetry and Yamato-e painting. The prolific Harunobu was the dominant ukiyo-e artist of his time. The success of his colourful nishiki-e from 1765 on led to a steep decline in demand for the limited palettes of benizuri-e and urushi-e, as well as hand-coloured prints.Print credit: Suzuki Harunobu