A Girl with a Pipe
ca. 1785
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
25 31/32 x 4 15/32 in. (66.0 x 11.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1914
Accession Number
JP132
Tags
Art Historical Context
Torii Kiyonaga's *A Girl with a Pipe (ca. 1785) is a captivating woodblock print from Japan's Edo period (1615–1868), exemplifying the ukiyo-e tradition of depicting the "floating world" of everyday pleasures and beauty. This intimate vertical-format print (ōban size, approximately 25 31/32 x 4 15/32 in.) showcases a young woman gracefully holding a slender kiseru smoking pipe, her kimono flowing elegantly. Kiyonaga, a master of the Torii school, was renowned for his bijin-ga—portraits of beautiful women—rendered with soft, rounded forms and a sense of poised serenity that set him apart from b...
About the Artist
Torii Kiyonaga · 1752–1815
Torii Kiyonaga, born Sekiguchi Shinsuke in 1752 in Uraga, Sagami Province, was the son of an Edo bookseller who owned tenements near a bustling fish market. At age 14 in 1765, he began his apprenticeship under Torii Kiyomitsu, the third-generation head of the prestigious Torii school of ukiyo-e, renowned for kabuki theater illustrations and signage. Adopted into the Torii family, Kiyonaga succeede...