Woman Holding a Tobacco Pipe

Object Details

• Artist

  Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)

• Description

  Poem above. Signature and seal.

• Signatures

  Signed: Hokusai Taito hitsu.

• Inscriptions

  Above the figure of the girl is a comic ode signed Shoku Sanjin:

  Uzumi-bi no

  Shita ni sawarade

  Yawaraka ni

  Ii-yoran koto no

  Hatabako no gana.

  This is a play upon words signifying the wish that he might in some gentle way make tobacco convey his love.

  This is a play upon words signifying the wish that he might in some gentle way make tobacco convey his love.

• Label

  Toying with the tobacco pipe in her left hand, a woman gazes pensively upward and exhales deeply. The use of pale flesh tones rather than white for the skin of the face, hands, and breast places this work in Hokusai's "Taito" period. The wave pattern (tachimaki) on the woman's sash frequently occurs in his paintings of beautiful women, and the subdued coloration of her garments suggests she is married. Women of worldly experience feature regularly in Hokusai's paintings of the Taito period. Indeed, such works represent the ultimate expression of voluptuous sensuality among the artist's many paintings of women.

• Provenance

  To 1898

  Edward S. Hull Jr., New York to 1898 [1]

  From 1898 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Edward S. Hull Jr. in 1898 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Kakemono List, L. 167, pg. 37, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Edward S. Hull Jr. was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa’s (1853-1908) lawyer. Hull often acted as an agent, facilitating purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa, as well as purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa's

  well-known associate, Bunshichi Kobayashi (see correspondence, Hull to Freer, 1898-1900, as well as invoices from E.S. Hull Jr., 1898-1900, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). See also, Ingrid Larsen, "'Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures': Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum," Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), pgs. 15 and 34. See further, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art, (Washington, DC and New York: Freer Gallery of Art and H. N. Abrams, 1993), pgs. 133-134.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Hokusai: Mad About Painting (November 20, 2019 to January 9, 2022)

  Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 2 (March 8 to October 19, 2008)

  Hokusai (October 25, 2005 to May 14, 2006)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Edward S. Hull Jr. (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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• Name

  Hull, Edward S., Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ukiyo-e, Children, Kakemono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings