Utagawa Kunihisa II

UTAGAWA KUNIHISA II (Japan, 1832-1891).
"Kabuki Actors."
Ukiyo-e woodcut on paper.
Exhibits sligthly wear consistent with age and use and slight moisture marks.
Measurements: 32 x 21 cm; 46 x 35,5 cm (frame).

The engraving represents two actors of kabuki theater, a traditional Japanese theater genre. Kunihisa II was a disciple, collaborator and son-in-law of Kunisada. He was born in Yokohama. He created many of the landscapes that accompany Kunisada's figures. His work is in the Ashmolean, the Idemitsu Museum, the Newark Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum, Oberlin College, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tokyo Metropolitan Library, and the Waseda University Library, among others.

The images of ukiyo-e ("floating world"), or Japanese woodblock prints, are color works produced in Japan since the 17th century, illustrating landscapes, themes from the theater or pleasure houses, genre scenes, folklore, etc., often starring famous actors and geisha. Although ukiyo-e enjoyed its greatest popularity in Japan during the second half of the 17th century, in Europe it was discovered at the end of the 19th century, when some artists, such as Van Gogh, noticed the paper, illustrated prints, that wrapped porcelain and other merchandise brought from Japan. Since then, these prints began to be collected, which fascinated the Western artist for their radically different concept, their essentiality and expressive force, and which represented a true revolution for European art, marking a before and after in its evolution.