Lot 282: Utagawa Kunimasa (1773-1810)

Utagawa Kunimasa (1773-1810)
Ichikawa Omezo I as Tashiro Yasubei, from an untitled series of okubi-e [large-head portrait] of actors, signed Kunimasa ga and published by Uemura Yohei, very good impression, colour and condition
Oban tate-e

PROPERTY FROM AN OVERSEAS COLLECTION

At least twenty-one prints are known of this series made by Kunimasa in collaboration with his teacher Utagawa Toyokuni and Katsukawa Shunei. As in this case, many of these prints have eyes which have been touched in with white pigment. There are very few impressions of this portrait known.1

1. Sebastian Izzard, Japanese Prints, Paintings, and Metalwork, (New York, 2000), p.28, pl. 14