Original woodblock print vertical diptych – Paper – Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) – Tachibijin 立美人 (Standing beauty) – Japan – ca 1825-30

Description

Original woodblock print vertical diptych – Paper – Keisai Eisen (1790-1848) – Tachibijin 立美人 (Standing beauty) – Japan – ca 1825-30

Keisai Eisen(渓斎 英泉) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist who specialised in bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women). His best works, including his ōkubi-e(“large head pictures”), are considered to be masterpieces of the “decadent” Bunsei Era(1818–1830).

Eisen’s area of expertise was said to be prints of beautiful women (bijin).
In fact, however, like all three artists, he produced a number of prints in a variety of ukiyo-e genres. Like these artists too, he is said to have suffered from the overproduction of ukiyo-e in the nineteenth century, with pressures to produce new works quickly leading to a large but uneven oeuvre.