Utamaro kitagawa biography books

Japanese artist (1753–1806)

In this Japanese name, the surname is Kitagawa.

Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese: 喜多川 歌麿; c. 1753 – 31 October 1806) was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijinōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s.

He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.

Little is known of Utamaro's life.

Kitagawa Utamaro Paintings, Bio, Ideas | TheArtStory

His work began to appear in the 1770s, and he rose to prominence in the early 1790s with his portraits of beauties with exaggerated, elongated features. He produced over 2000 known prints and was one of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime. In 1804 he was arrested and manacled for fifty days for making illegal prints depicting the 16th-century military ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and died two years later.

Utamaro's work reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth cen Utamaro | Ukiyo-e, Prints, Woodblocks | Britannica SOH