A Young Woman Reading A Letter

Kitagawa Utamaro Japanese

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In this print, from a series portraying women in different phases of romance, Utamaro captures a young woman at the moment she stops to comtemplate a letter. She extends her hands from her robe to hold this letter from her lover that perhaps suggests their next meeting. She lifts her head, opens her mouth slightly, and looks into the distance. The large-head portrait format effectively captures her complex emotion, agony perhaps.

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

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