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CHIKANOBU, Toyohara (1838 - 1912)		True Beauties (Shin bijin) Preparatory drawing ('shita-e')
		Preparatory drawing (shita-e) for the woodblock print series; charcoal and black ink on paper; two pentimenti*. Date:                      1896 Size:                       oban tate-e (c.  c. 37.5 x 27 cms / 14 3/4” x 10 5/8”) Condition: Stapler holes from former archiving at the top margin, else very good general condition for a shita-e. ref. no.: # 490940 Price: € 1,500.00

A rare preparatory drawing for an intended design of Chikanobu’s okubi-e series, Shin bijin (‘True beauties’), published in 1897. Two pentimenti* with corrections to the woman’s nose part and the headscarf. The small inscriptions are color indications for the block carvers and printers. The bottom part of the sheet is left blank, intended to take the series title and the artist's signature. * pentimento: The word is derived from the Italian pentirsi, which means to repent or change your mind. Pentimento (pl. pentimenti) is a change made by the artist during the process of painting or drawing. For a detailed discussion of the series and Chikanobu's career, please see: "CHIKANOBU - Modernity and Nostalgia in Japanese Prints", Claremont, Ca ./ Leiden, NL, 2006; "The New wave - Twentieth century Japanese prints from the Robert O. Muller collection", London and Leiden, 1993, pp. 79-82.

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