March 2019

Japanese Paintings, Prints, and Illustrated Books of the Floating World

March 16–23, 2019
17 East 76th Street, 3rd Floor, New York 10021
11:00 AM to 5:00 PM; Sunday noon to 5PM

Sebastian Izzard LLC Asian Art will exhibit a selection of ukiyo-e paintings, woodblock prints, and illustrated books at their gallery on East 76th Street during Asia Week. A stand-out in the exhibition is a figure of a beautiful youth (wakashū) on a plain ground painted by an unknown artist of the Kanbun era (mid-17th century). Such images evolved from genre screens and were the precursors to the beauty paintings of the Ukiyo-e school. A rare painting of a courtesan by Keisai Eisen (1791–1848) exemplifies the bijinga genre with its focus on the sumptuous fashions of the Edo period. A fine selection of 19th century landscape prints will also be on display. An unusual group of double-sided fan prints by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769–1825) entitled Fashionable Twelve Months (Imayo jūni-kagetsu)—each double-print featuring a beauty representing a month of the year—will be featured. Also by Toyokuni is a rare six-sheet print depicting fashionable people viewing fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge in Edo. Hokusai is well-represented in the exhibition with fine impressions from several of his most famous print series’ including ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji’, ‘One Hundred Poets’, and ‘Bridges’ sets. A selection of illustrated books will round out the exhibition.