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[Portraits of actors, often playing roles] – Vintage Wall Art

[Portraits of actors, often playing roles], [between 1860 and 1866 (seal date: 1860.7)] — historic print
[Portraits of actors, often playing roles], [between 1860 and 1866 (seal date: 1860.7)]. Historic print from the Japanese Prints collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: [Portraits of actors, often playing roles], preserved in this historic print. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[Portraits of actors, often playing roles]

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Twenty sheets mounted as a single scroll set this record apart from ordinary single-sheet actor portraits, and the subject heading names the kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan (1831-1899) as its focus. Prints like these were a staple of Edo-period popular culture, showing performers in their best-known roles, often with the actor's name and crest in a decorative cartouche. The sheets were printed in full color using the nishiki-e woodblock technique and drawn by several designers, including Utagawa Kunisada (also known as Toyokuni), Toyohara Kunichika, and Utagawa Kuniaki. Their work from the early 1860s reflects the late Edo period, when the theater trade and its printed portraits were at their most lively.

Created / published[between 1860 and 1866 (seal date: 1860.7)]
Medium20 prints (mounted on scroll) : woodcut, color.
Genreorganized by the Library of Congress, 2001.
NotesTitle and other information based on entry in exhibition catalog. Artists include Utagawa Toyokuni (also known as Utagawa Kunisada) (sheets 8-10, 14-16, 20); Toyohara Kunichika (sheets 1, 2, 4, 5, 11-13, 17-19); and Utagawa Kuniaki (sheets 3, 6). Artist for sheet 7 not yet identified. Nishike-e (brocade) print. Ōban size. Forms part of: Japanese prints and drawings (Library of Congress). Four sheets (7, 9, 13, and 20) Published in: The Floating world of Ukiyo-e ... / essays by Sandy Kita .... New York ..., 2001, no. 109, pp. 174-75. Exhibited: The Floating world of Ukiyo-e: shadows
SubjectsShikan, Nakamura,--1831-1899. Actors--Japanese--1850-1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan4,570 × 3,699 px · prints to 15 × 12 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-222069

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