Woman and Child

Kitagawa Utamaro Japanese

Not on view

In this playful picture, a young boy points at his mother’s open legs. The dark green lacquered obi attracts the eye and directs it to the oddly placed still life in the foreground. The green fruit, the child’s raised leg and suggestive gesture, and the mother’s sleepy gaze hint that the artist may have intended an erotic reading or perhaps a metaphor for childbirth.

Woman and Child, Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, ca. 1754–1806), Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, Japan

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