an ōtsu painting of a rat, Keisai Eisen

Artwork Overview

Keisai Eisen, an ōtsu painting of a rat
Keisai Eisen, an ōtsu painting of a rat
Keisai Eisen
an ōtsu painting of a rat
1828, Edo period (1600–1868)
Keisai Eisen
1790–1848
an ōtsu painting of a rat, 1828, Edo period (1600–1868)
Where object was made: Japan
Material/technique: color woodcut
Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 206.4 x 187.3 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 8 1/8 x 7 3/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in
Credit line: Gift of Rose K. Auerbach
Accession number: 1967.0027
Not on display
Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Nature/Natural
The artist Eisen thought that the founder of ukiyo-e was a provincial seventeenth-century painter named Iwasa Matabei, pictured with his rough Ōtsu paintings on the wall. He contrasts the painter with the crisply drawn young woman, as though he were tracing the progress of ukiyo-e from its humble origins to its peak of elegance and refinement in his own day. The print is part of a series published for a Rat Year.
The artist Eisen thought that the founder of ukiyo-e was a provincial seventeenth-century painter named Iwasa Matabei, pictured with his rough Ōtsu paintings on the wall. He contrasts the painter with the crisply drawn young woman, as though he were tracing the progress of ukiyo-e from its humble origins to its peak of elegance and refinement in his own day. The print is part of a series published for a Rat Year.
Archive Label date unknown: The artist Eisen thought that the founder of ukiyo-e was a provincial seventeenth-century painter named Iwasa Matabei, pictured with his rough Ōtsu paintings on the wall. He contrasts the painter with the crisply drawn young woman, as though he were tracing the progress of ukiyo-e from its humble origins to its peak of elegance and refinement in his own day. The print is part of a series published for a Rat Year.

Exhibitions

Hokusai: Local Selections from the Spencer Museum of Art, Richardson-North Collection, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
, curator
2024–2025
Nature/Natural
Kris Ercums, curator
2011–2014
Surimono Prints from the Collection of the Spencer Museum of Art
1991
Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints
Roger Keyes, curator
1986
Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints
Roger Keyes, curator
1986
Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints
Roger Keyes, curator
1984

Citations

Keyes, Roger, and Carol Shankel, Project Director. Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Prints in the Spencer Museum of Art. Tokyo, New York, San Francisco: Kodansha International Ltd, 1984.

The University of Kansas Museum of Art. The Register of the Museum of Art: Glimpses of Fugitive Pleasures -- Japanese prints in the museum collection. Introduction and catalogue by Carla M. Zainie 5, no. 2, Spring (1975):