Russian Officer with His Wife
1861
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
Oban 13 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. (34.9 x 24.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
GIft of Lincoln Kirstein, 1959
Accession Number
JP3184
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the waning years of Japan's Edo period (16151868), Utagawa Yoshiiku captured a fascinating moment of cultural encounter in his 1861 woodblock printRussian Officer with His Wife*. This vibrant oban-sized print (13 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.), rendered in ink and color on paper, depicts Western couple amid Japan's increasing contact with the outside world. Following Commodore Perry's arrival in1853 and the subsequent treaties opening ports to foreigners, artists like Yoshiiku— a master of the ukiyo-e tradition—turned their gaze to these exotic newcomers, blending curiosity with stylized elegance. Yoshi...
About the Artist
Utagawa Yoshiiku · 1833–1904
Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833–1904) was a prolific Japanese woodblock print artist and journalist who lived through one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in his country's history, the transition from the Edo period through the Meiji Restoration. A student of the celebrated Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Yoshiiku inherited his master's taste for bold compositional drama and dynamic figuration, applying...