Artist: Takahashi Hiroaki (Shôtei) 高橋松亭 弘明
Title: Seated Nude with Black Cat
Date: ca 1924-27
Seated Nude Playing with Black Cat. A seated beauty holds her towel up for a black kitten to play with. She is relaxed, her long hair falling past her waist. The outlines of her body have been printed with a soft pink and are also blind-printed with kara-zuri to give physical volume to her figure. Against this intimate pose is an explosively red background with diagonal streaks, giving the work a highly charged, dramatic contrast. One of the most brazenly erotic images in shin hanga, this is one of Hiroaki’s finest designs, and is also one of his most scarce designs, as the printer’s building (including inventory and blocks) were destroyed during WWII. Extremely scarce.
Condition: Excellent impression and color. Very good condition. Minor discoloration on upper and lower margins.
Dimensions: 43.5 x 27.3 cm
Publisher: Fusui Gabô (Publisher's seal in right margin)
Literature: Merritt, Helen, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years, 1990, p. 99. Brown, Kendall H. & Goodall-Cristante, Hollis, Shin-Hanga, New Prints in Modern Japan, 1996, p. 64, fig. 80. Reigle Newland, Amy, and Hamanaka Shinji, The Female Image: 20th century prints of Japanese beauties, 2000, no. 147. Nihon no hanga III 1921-1930, Toshi to onna to hikari to kage to (Japanese Prints III, 1921-1930: Cities and Women, Lights and Shadows), Chiba City Museum of Art, 2001, p. 125, no. 270. Reigle Newland, Amy, gen. ed., Printed to Perfection: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, 2004, no. 13. Shimizu, Hisao, Syotei (Hiroaki) Takahashi: His Life and Works, 2005, pl. 317. Shimizu, Hisao, The Collected Print Works of Shotei Takahashi, A Modern Ukiyo-e Painter, 2006, p105, no. 102.
Seal: HIroaki and printer’s seal Onotomi
Signature: Hiroaki
