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Subject:Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Hillary Mon, Sep 01, 2014 IP: 75.110.45.66

These paintings were given to me by my great grandmother when she passed away. I have been trying to figure out more about them since then!

Some of them appear very old and the paper is really thin and almost like tissue paper.







Subject:Re: Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Ike Caglar Wed, Sep 03, 2014

Hi,
First and the last photos are the ones that I can comment upon: The signature on the first photo is Utamaro's. The bijin in the last photo is the work of the same artist. Are you sure those are paintings? Utamaro's paintings are rare. But prints are found more easily.

Cheers,
Ike

Subject:Re: Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Hillary Thu, Sep 04, 2014

I am not sure about much when it comes to these "paintings". I have a few more but can only post three at a time.

I do know that my great grandparents were close friends with George Matsumoto and these came from either him or they got them when there were in Japan I think in the 50's or 60's.

The paper on the portraits is not as thin as the others.

Nobody seems to be able to tell me anything about the other paintings. How can I get more information on those?





Subject:Re: Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Stan Sun, Sep 07, 2014

The first print (these are Japanese woodblock prints NOT paintings) is another reproduction of an Utamaro print (like the one where I gave you a pointer to a web page with all the information you need). Apparently, you are not reading the responses.

Also, if you want better answers, provide better pictures. You don't say what signatures go with what pictures and provide only the parts of some of the objects.

Cheers,
Stan

Subject:Re: Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Bill H Wed, Sep 03, 2014

I can provide a bit of help, in that I recognize the first signature as 'Utamaro' (歌麿), specifically Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川 歌麿 - 1750-1806), a more celebrated Japanese woodblock artist, especially noted for his depictions of beautiful women. Others in the forum can point you in the right direction towards other relevant information.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Subject:Re: Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Stan Wed, Sep 03, 2014

The first picture is the signature of Utamaro, a Japanese woodblock print artist. It goes with your bottom picture. Utamaro prints have been often copied and chances that yours is original (and valuable) are slim.

Cheers,
Stan

Subject:Re: Paintings...can you tell me more?
Posted By: Stan Wed, Sep 03, 2014

The Boston MFA has an original of your print. Copy/paste this link in your browser:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/hana%C3%B4gi-of-the-%C3%B4giya-%C3%B4giya-hana%C3%B4gi-in-rebus-form-from-the-series-renowned-beauties-likened-to-the-six-immortal-poets-k%C3%B4mei-bijin-rokkasen-234118

Cheers,
Stan


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