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[Portraits of actors, often playing roles] – Vintage Photo Print

[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

Few images capture their era like this historic print of [Portraits of actors, often playing roles]. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[Portraits of actors, often playing roles]

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Twenty sheets mounted together as a single scroll make this set unusual, since it gathers actor portraits from several hands rather than one series. The subject is the kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan (1831 to 1899), who appears here in a range of stage roles. Most of the designs are by Utagawa Toyokuni (Kunisada) and Toyohara Kunichika, with a few by Utagawa Kuniaki, reflecting how actor prints were commissioned and produced in Edo during the 1860s. Printed in full color using the nishiki-e technique, the set shows how theater fashion and printmaking closely overlapped in that decade.

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 scan4,535 × 3,689 px · prints to 15 × 12 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-222075

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