Beauties at the Seashore (c. 1765–92): Art, History and Details

Beauties at the Seashore (c. 1765–92) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ippitsusai Bunchō (Japanese, active c. 1765–92).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Bunchō portrays the popular subject of cooling off by the water on a late spring or early summer evening, as suggested by the willow. The seated lady enjoys her pipe-smoking—a popular pastime for Edo women. In the background, some fireworks are set off from a small boat.

Object facts

• Title: Beauties at the Seashore
• Date: c. 1765–92
• Creator attribution: Ippitsusai Bunchō (Japanese, active c. 1765–92)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 41.3 x 54 cm (16 1/4 x 21 1/4 in.); Overall: 134 x 72.8 cm (52 3/4 x 28 11/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1963.506

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Narazaki. "Ippitsusai Bunchō hitsu: yū suzumi zu." Kokka 國華, no. 836 (1961), pp. 528–531.
• Yoshida and Kaneko. "'Kokka' shosai-no Bunchō nikuhitsu-no mondai." Ukiyo-e 浮世絵, no. 3 (1962), pp. 48–59.
• Henning, Edward B. "Annual Report for 1963." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 6 (1964): 127–161.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.