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Toyohara CHIKANOBU
(1838 - 1912)
"Peasant woman in a landscape"
(preparatory drawing / shita-e)

Preparatory brush drawing in sumi (black ink) on thin paper, with red underdrawing,
with pentimento at top, and paper attachment at left.

Signed:                 (unsigned, as usual)
Date:                     1880 - 90s
Paper size:            45 x 24. 5 cms / c. 17 3/4" x 9 3/4"),
                               which includes the paper attachment at left.

From a private collection of preparatory drawings by Chikanobu. The drawings apparently had
been kept in a filer, and so have small punch holes along the top or one of the side margins.

On request, the drawing may come in a specially shaped mount (free of charge).
Another preparatory drawing by the artist is shown in Part I of this Drawings section.


ref. no.: # S-1239
Price:  € 2,950.00
A peasant woman carrying a hoe over a her shoulder and a bag in her left hand, is standing by the sea shore in front of a long boat. She gazes past a group of people at the near beach, over to the opposite bank of the bay where we see roof tops along a rocky coast line with trees. To the right a village in a hilly area. In the distance the cone of Mt. Fuji is seen.
The woman and the boat were first outlined in red color. A pentimento at top shows a different version of the woman, now walking in a slightly stooping posture. This drawing represents an early stage in the development of the design when the artist had decided to extend the view farther to the left to add more depth to the picture. The extension is executed on a small piece of paper attached to the left margin.
Toyohara CHIKANOBU was born in Takada, Niigata-ken. He first studied the Kano-style of painting. After the Meiji Restoration studied under Toyohara Kunichika, whose surname he later used. Specialized in historical subjects and in pictures of women and children of the Meiji era. Also did illustrations for newspapers. Chikanobu certainly was a particularly skilled artist and a great draftsman as proven by this and other drawings (shown in our catalog Japanese Drawings - part I).

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