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Three Courtesans with a Client
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This double-page book illustration is called a sumizuri (meaning to print with sumi ink on paper). It may be an adaptation of a picture book by Kiyonobu I titled Keisei ehon , or Illustrated Book of Courtesans, portraying the most glamorous people in the ukiyo-e world. Masanobu had the greatest influence on the development of the ukiyo-e style during the first half of the 1700s. A publisher, print designer, and painter, he initiated new genres of prints such as the "perspective picture" ( uki-e ).
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThree Courtesans with a Client. Okumura Masanobu (Japanese, 1686–1764). Color woodblock print; sheet: 26.5 x 37.7 cm (10 7/16 x 14 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith, 1985.337
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