Difference between revisions of "Nishikawa Sukenobu"
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Revision as of 02:18, 25 January 2010
Nishikawa Sukenobu was a prominent early ukiyo-e artist and designer of book illustrations in the Kyoto area. Even more prolific than his rough contemporaries Hishikawa Moronobu (d. 1694) and Yoshida Hanbei (active c. 1664-1690), Sukenobu designed thousands of illustrations for over two hundred books.
He trained from a young age in the painting styles of the Kanô and Tosa schools, only first beginning to produce book illustrations and other works of "popular" art around 1698. Many of his works prominently feature beautiful women, many of them showing particular creativity and taste in inventing kimono designs; Sukenobu was in fact commissioned on several occasions by kimono-makers to create textile designs for them.
Most of his works, however, are said to have focused upon romantic fictions or the hobbies and pleasures of the women of Kyoto. Ukiyo-e expert Richard Lane writes that Sukenobu's style was profoundly influential, and characterized by a "subdued conception of lovely, unobtrusive grace (perhaps closer to actual Japanese womanhood than that of any other artist"[1].
References
- Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1978. pp56-58.
- ↑ Lane. p58.
