City Girl [left of a triptych of Three Beauties] by Mihata Jôryû

City Girl [left of a triptych of Three Beauties] c. 1830s

color-on-silk, ink

facial expression drawing

character portrait

color-on-silk

caricature

japan

portrait reference

ink

animal drawing portrait

portrait drawing

portrait art

fine art portrait

celebrity portrait

digital portrait

This portrait, "City Girl [left of a triptych of Three Beauties]," is by the artist Mihata Jôryû and is a depiction of a beautiful young woman from the 1830s in Japan. The woman is depicted with a delicate, elegant face, holding a fan and adorned with elaborate hair ornaments. This artwork is an example of the artist's skillful use of color and detail to create a sense of life and beauty. This artwork is part of a triptych, three paintings together depicting the three beauties, and is currently housed in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The subject of the painting is typical of the "Bijinga," the genre of beautiful women paintings, popular in the Edo period.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

⋮

Although they are unsigned, these three paintings exhibit the idiosyncratic style of artist Mihata Jōryū’s beauties. At first glance their faces look similar, but Jōryū juxtaposes three types of femininity—a prostitute holding folded tissue paper, a geisha (entertainer) with a fan, and a city girl. Each one represents a different type of charm through her gesture and expression. Mihata Jōryū was active in Kyoto during the 1830s, and his paintings of beauties with clear-cut features and luxuriously designed kimonos became very fashionable, even in Edo (present-day Tokyo). By the 1830s many artists had come to follow Jōryū’s style, but little is known about the artist himself. Even his name is somewhat unclear, because he uses seals that read “Jōryū” and others reading “Jōryō.” His family name is believed to be Mihata, but that also is uncertain, for he used the surname Yokoyama on at least one extant painting.