Utagawa Toyohiro (歌川豊広) (artist 1773 – 1828)
Woman smoking, seated man writing and small boy holding tray
ca 1801
9.75 in x 15 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Toyohiro ga (豊広画)
Publisher: Yamadaya Sanshirō
(Marks 584 - seal 20-018)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - two panels of a triptych of a young man practicing calligraphy - a Toyokuni I/Toyohiro collaboration
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - a triptych of a young man painting a fan The young man is holding or reading a poem card in his left hand, which it appears he may have just written. Notice the brush in his right hand and ink stone in a long, narrow box below it. Behind the woman, just beyond the railing, are large, beautiful chrysanthemums in a chrysanthemum garden (niwa no kiku 庭の菊)
In ca. 1801 Toyohiro created a couple of triptychs that feature a young man either doing calligraphy or painting a fan. See the links to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston above. Note also that the woman's hairstyle in this print in the Lyon Collection is done up in the same style of some of the women in these compositions.
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Sachiko Matsushita of Chiba University wrote that different reign periods often express a bias toward particular flowers, trees and/or plants: camelias were popular during the Kan'ei period (寛永 1624-44); maples and azaleas during the Genroku period (元禄 1688-1704); chrysanthemums during the Kyōhō period (享保 1716-36); tachibana during the Kansei period (寛政 1789-1801); morning glories during the Bunka period (文化 1804-1818); Japanese lily, pine needles and chrysanthemums during the Bunsei period (文政 1818-1830); irises and chrysanthemums during the Koka period (弘化 1845-48); and dwarf jasmine and morning glories during the Kaei period (嘉永 1848-54).
Yamadaya Sanshirō (山田屋三四郎) (publisher)