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臥龍梅の前に煙草のもらい火
Young Couple Lighting Pipes beside the Sleeping Dragon Plum Tree
臥龍梅の前に煙草のもらい火
Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1725–1770)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1767–68 (Meiwa 4–5)
Medium/Technique
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions
Vertical chûban; 28.8 x 20.7 cm (11 5/16 x 8 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19486
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPrints
An attractive teenaged couple accompanied by a little servant boy pause to enjoy a smoke beside the Sleeping Dragon Plum Tree in the plum garden at Kameido. The fresh, new blossoms appearing on the gnarled, twisted old tree are a poignant symbol of the annual renewal of life and color every spring; but Harunobu’s young man and woman seem far more interested in each other than in the flowers.
Catalogue Raisonné
Waterhouse, The Harunobu Decade (2013), #269; Ukiyo-e shûka 4 (1979), list #469, and supp. 1 (1982), pl. 58
DescriptionMFA impressions: 06.475, 11.19486
Signed
Suzuki Harunobu ga
鈴木春信画
鈴木春信画
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 - d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: August 3, 1911)
NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.
NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.