Beauty reclining as visitors approach

Object Details

• Artist

  Tamura Suio (active 1680-1730)

• Description

  Interior: a man coming to visit a woman lying on her bed. Ink, full color and gold powder. Signature and seal.

• Signatures

  Signature: Sui-o [Jap] shi no hitsu. Seal: Sesshin [Jap]. There was a Genroku painter who signed himself Sui-o; seal, Sesshin -- as here. Whether Sui-o is a name of his or of his offspring, or of a woman painter, I do not know. This is a rather stiff, weak, neat affair, but might be 18th century. The woman may be a high class yujo; the servant following the man is a married woman, as her faintly visible eyebrows indicate, and belongs to the house.

• Provenance

  To 1900

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1900 [1]

  From 1900 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1900 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] Undated folder sheet note. See Original Kakemono List, L. 226, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [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

  Hand-Held: Gerhard Pulverer's Japanese Illustrated Books (April 6 to August 11, 2013)

  Life and Leisure: Everyday Life in Japanese Art (August 14, 2004 to February 20, 2005)

  Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)

  Japanese Art—Paintings, Pottery (August 18, 1967 to September 20, 1971)

  Japanese Art, Galleries 3, 4, and 5 (January 1, 1963 to September 16, 1970)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (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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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Lantern, Art, Books and reading, Screen, Ukiyo-e, Pipe, Charles Lang Freer collection, Peony, Swords, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Kimono, Woman

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings