Description
In Kitagawa Utamaro’s Yamauba and Kintoki, the child looks upward close to the adult’s face and breast as she inclines her gaze toward him. Pale and dark garments surround the paired bodies, giving their proximity a gentle frame. The image makes the exchange of attention visible through a small space, emphasizing contact rather than a wide landscape or dramatic event.
Made around 1795, the work is an ink-and-color woodblock print. Its named figures bring a familiar legendary subject into the intimate scale of a mother-and-child encounter. Utamaro concentrates on the relationship between the two, letting the child’s upward look and the adult’s response connect the composition. The print’s interest rests in that shared attention, allowing the legendary identities to coexist with an immediate and recognizable tenderness.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Kitagawa Utamaro collection.
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