Standing Figure of a Beauty (c. 1690): Art, History and Details

Standing Figure of a Beauty (c. 1690) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Dressed in layered robes and a jacketlike garment called an uchikake with a lively floral design, figures such as this one may have derived from dolls formed in the likeness of courtesans. It was produced in Hizen Province (in present-day Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu) by the Sakaida family of ceramists, the head of which has gone by the first name Kakiemon for many generations. As a result, the studio’s historical works are known as Kakiemon ware. The studio is distinguished for being among the earliest in Japan to use multicolor overglaze enamel and for the milky white of its porcelain.

Object facts

• Title: Standing Figure of a Beauty
• Date: c. 1690
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Porcelain with overglaze color enamels (Hizen ware, Kakiemon type)
• Dimensions: Overall: 38 cm (14 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1964.366

A detail from the museum

Look closely! One of this fashionable woman's feet is peeking out from under her layered kimono.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Golden Anniversary Acquisition,” 1966, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Stechow, Wolfgang. "Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." Artnews 65, no. 5 (September 1966): 30–64. Published as: An Ukiyo-e Beauty

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.