Suzuki Harunobu, Printmaker, Poet of Women and Color and Precursor of Ukiyo-e
A pioneer of the “brocade print” and its innovative polychromy, the master created a highly sophisticated feminine universe, a prelude to the golden age of ukiyo-e.
Estimate for the series of three: €60,000/80,000
This delicate vision of a young couple comes from the personal collection of a great connoisseur of ukiyo-e: the Dutchman René Scholten, who since 2000 has presided over the destiny of his gallery Scholten Japanese Art, in New York. At the same time, and for his own personal pleasure, this aesthete has collected hundreds of prints by the greatest Japanese masters. Now eager to part with them, he already sent some of them to the auction block on October 16, under the hammer of Audap. Thursday, June 12, the Paris-based dealer is preparing to disperse a second selection, among which three prints by Suzuki Harunobu, an eighteenth-century virtuoso of the genre, should be particularly eye-catching. From an untitled series illustrating the “Three Vesper Poems” (Sanseki waka), these images in chuban tate-e format date from 1766-1767 and each feature a pair of characters.
These nishiki-e or “brocade prints”, a term recalling the shimmer of multicolored fabrics, revolutionized the art of printmaking, which until then had been restricted to the use of two or three hues.
The Infinite Delicacy of Harunobu’s Style
This composition, entitled Evening by the Marshes, shows an elegantly dressed couple in an interior: the man standing, immersed in reading a letter, and the woman at his feet, holding the three-stringed instrument known as a shamisen. Behind them, open bays give a glimpse of marshes, where birds frolic. This intimate scene is explained by the short poem inscribed in a frame at top right: “Against my will, a feeling of melancholy has invaded my heart… on the marsh where the snipe flies away in autumn, at dusk”. Who wrote it? The medieval poet Saigyo Hoshi (1118-1190) celebrated as one of ancient Japan’s most illustrious. In perfect symbiosis, the melancholy sentimentality of the ancient verses is matched by the infinite delicacy of the style of Harunobu, famous for having been the supposed inventor, around 1765, of the first images printed in several colors, thanks to the use of a dozen inked plates on a single sheet. These nishiki-e or “brocade prints”, a term recalling the shimmer of multicolored fabrics, revolutionized the art of printmaking, which until then had been restricted to the use of two or three shades. First applied to e-goyomi, illustrated calendars, this complex process enabled him to give life to a characteristic type of slender young women, whose silhouettes evolve against an architectural or landscape background. A sophisticated, fantastical universe that ushered in the golden age of Japanese printmaking, soon to be exemplified by Utamaro, Hokusai, Hiroshige and many others.
René Scholten’s personal collection, Netherlands (Part II) – Early Japanese prints & Shin-Hanga
Thursday 12 June 2025 – 14:00 (CEST) – Live
Salle 7 – Hôtel Drouot – 75009 Paris
Audap & Associés
