Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
A Kyoto-based ukiyo-e painter, Gion Seitoku specialized in portraying women from Gion and Shimabara, licensed brothel districts in that city. He was known for detailing faces with subtle modeling to heighten a sense of realism. During the 1700s and 1800s, wearing iridescent, greenish lip gloss made from safflower was in vogue. In addition, Japanese women almost universally practiced the custom of artificially blackening their teeth with a stain.
Inscriptions
東山画奴井特寫 「字日伯立」白文方印・「せいとく」朱文千鳥印
Provenance
(Kozo Yabumoto, Hyogo, Japan, sold to Kelvin Smith) ?–1985: The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899–1998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1985–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Ukiyo-e: Floating World. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 11-September 2, 1973). A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988). Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2004-April 10, 2005). Japan’s Floating World 日本の浮世. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Gion Seitoku (Japanese, active late 1700s–early 1800s)
- Date
- early 1800s
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 139.7 x 55.8 cm (55 x 21 15/16 in.); Painting only: 56.3 x 43.1 cm (22 3/16 x 16 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith
- Accession no.
- 1985.271
More by Gion Seitoku in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009569
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