Utamaro Kitagawa - female beauty singer

, писавший портреты красавиц, идеализировал женщин и мастерски передавал их внутреннее состояние. An ingenious artist In tamaro Kitagawa , who painted portraits of beauties, idealized women and skillfully conveyed their inner state. He had a huge impact on the visual arts, he aroused the interest of Europeans in the Japanese engravings.

Few facts about the wizard

Kitagawa Utamaro, whose biography is incredibly dramatic, according to researchers, was born in 1753 in Edo (modern Tokyo) or Musashi province. The fact is that information about his life is extremely scarce. The real name of the genius is Nobuyoshi, and he takes the creative pseudonym in the eighties of the eighteenth century.

In the city of Edo, the young man studies in the studio of the famous artist ukiyo-e technique, reflecting the life of ordinary people. A new direction in art, opposed to the official canons, is completely oriented towards the tastes of the townspeople.

The first professional works of the recognized genius appear in 1775. He writes portraits of the obfuscated actors of the Kabuki Theater, and the works of the young man attract the attention of the country's leading publisher, Ts. Dziudzaburo. There is a significant meeting between the artist and Tsutaya, who recognized the outstanding talent of the young man and became his patron for several years.

From illustrations to female portraits

However, time passes, and Utamaro Kitagawa, whose career goes up, refuses illustrations and focuses on creating waist-feminine portraits, severing the contract with the publisher. In search of inspiration, a talented Japanese man goes to the notorious area, where prostitutes and bandits live, and shows a woman's body with a special grace, hinting at easy eroticism.

The Japanese, who performed more than two thousand engravings, gave immortality to the courtesans who posed to him, and during his lifetime many masterpieces were taken out of the country.

Special technique of the creator

The author, who gained fame in the 18th century, used different printing technologies in his work: mixing colored powders to achieve a more subtle shade. I used mica, which gives the effect of a silvery background, paid close attention to how light falls. He noticed the glistening smoothness of the water, the radiance of the rose petals, sparkling and enlivening the sun's rays all around.

In an effort to show different characters and temperaments, he worked in the technique of polychrome printing, paying attention to even minor details and each time in a new way arranging compositions.

Singing a hymn to female beauty

Due to the color saturation of prints, a diverse range of moods of heroines is created: from sadness to joy, from serenity to excitement. The main singer of female beauty created an image of a charming woman with a long neck, sensual lips, a soft oval face and dark eyebrows. Utamaro Kitagawa, skillfully conveyed his state of mind, watched the girls from different classes. The favorite motifs of the author of the well-known album "The Yearbook of the Green Houses of Yoshiwara" are the everyday affairs of women who put hair in their hair, admiring themselves in the mirror, walking along the street or just thinking about their lives.

The viewer does not leave the feeling that the Japanese lived with these women, felt their smell, saw how they touched their hair and skin. And this can be regarded as the greatest gift of a genius creator, whose presence is felt in every engraving.

Individual style of writing

Utamaro Kitagawa, who enriched the color palette, introduced innovations in woodcutting techniques (wood engravings). He was looking for his manner for a long time, and when he found it, he became the best artist of the country. Keen on the opposite sex, the genius drew attractive girls of the Edo period.

Thin-feeling world, Utamaro Kitagawa, engravings of which cause admiration for skill, wrote women through a light fog, and this effect is achieved with the help of mica, ground into flour. The artist used a small number of colors, which creates a feeling not of the real world, but of a dream.

The Mystery of the Mosquito Net

So, in the product "Mosquito net" was manifested bright talent Utamaro Kitagava. Striving for laconism, the master shows two similar girls, one of which is hidden behind the curtain, and the other gazes intently at the transparent veil. They froze in anticipation of something invisible, and the viewer unravels the next secret of the Japanese. Nobody knows who these women are: aristocrats or geishas, because both of them, on the engraving of the creator of the portrait genre, have a special dignity.

Kitagawa Utamaro: paintings

One of his most famous works is the portrait of a girl, dubbed "Beauty". The charming charmer, thinking about something, does not correct the kimono falling from her shoulder, staying in her thoughts. Sitting on the ground, she rests on her with one hand, and the other holds a paper fan. A face whitened with special paints and hair gathered in a bun is thrown into the eyes. This is how the recognized beauties of that time looked.

Kitagawa skillfully focuses attention on the outfit of a girl who seems dark and not very attractive. However, the viewer soon looks at the hem with unusual embroidery and green fabric that stands out brightly against a gold background.

An engraving that destroyed a great artist

In 1804, after the release of the engraving "Hideyoshi and five concubines", where the author portrayed the ruling shogun in an unseemly kind, the artist was attacked by the wrath of the authorities. For free satire Utamaro is banned to prison, and he spends 50 days in the cell with his hands tied. Heavily shameful, Kitagawa ends his career, and two years later he dies.

After the death, many of the works of the Japanese genius turn out to be abroad, and in the famous Boston museum there are more than 380 of his engravings created in the ukiyo-e genre (pictures of the everyday world).

The attraction of the Japanese master

The great genius of the Land of the Rising Sun, which became famous in Europe, had a noticeable influence on Western art. Achieved by the glory of the national artist, Utamaro Kitagawa portrayed his heroines rather generalized, but with brilliance managed to convey the essence of each woman's character and reflect their momentary emotions. The modern viewer watches the engravings for hours, but he can not find the answer to the question: "What is the amazing hypnotism of Japanese beauties?"