Cleaning Combs (c. late 1790s): Art, History and Details

Cleaning Combs (c. late 1790s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806).

The work and its context

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

In this print, a mother who has put up her child's hair into a neat bun cleans the comb. By the latter part of the Kansei era, or 1789-1801, Utamaro was frequently incorporating the activities of daily life into his images of beauties. Beyond serving as portraits, and depicting the bonds between mothers and children, the prints also take the view of a detached observer in their representations of everyday settings.

Object facts

• Title: Cleaning Combs
• Date: c. late 1790s
• Creator attribution: Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, c. 1754–1806)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Dimensions: Sheet: 38.2 x 25.4 cm (15 1/16 x 10 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1930.216

Collection credit

Bequest of Edward L. Whittemore

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard C. “The Edward Loder Whittemore Collection of Japanese Prints.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 4 (April 1930): 64–66.
• Jenkins, Donaldドナルド. ジェンキンス, et. al, and Tobita Shigeo 飛田茂雄, translator. ミネアポリス美術館. ポートランド美術館 [= Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Portland Art Museum, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art.] Ukiyo-e shūka 浮世絵聚花; 9. Tōkyō: Shō gakukan 小学館, Showa 56 [1981].

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.