Reflective Love

I mentioned in my last post that really good prints don't come onto the market all that often these days. Well, every now and again a real gem does find its way into an auction sale, as is the case with Utamaro's Mono omou koi, from the Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906) collection, which is due to go under the hammer on September 18th this year at Christie's, New York. The print, the subtitle of which translates as Reflective Love, is from the series of five designs, published by Tsutaya Jûzaburô around 1793-4, entitled Kasen koi no bu (Love Themes from Classical Poetry), and is expected to fetch somewhere in the region of one to one and a half million US dollars. This fantastic bust portrait, set against a wonderful pink mica ground, depicts a married woman, denoted by her shaved eyebrows, leaning her head against her hand; her eyes narrowed as a result of experiencing intense passion, and possibly extreme jealousy, as she contemplates the nature of love. The most outstanding of the set of five, the opportunity to purchase such a print is a rare thing indeed.