Young Man Helping a Woman Retrieve a Love-Letter from a Monkey
Artist
Katsukawa Shun'ei
Datelate 1780s
Mediumwoodblock print, ink and color on paper; nishiki-e; hashira-e
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineJohn Chandler Bancroft Collection
Object number1901.1356
Label TextKatsukawa Shun'ei (1762-1819)
Young Man Helping a Woman Retrieve a Love-Letter from a Monkey
Late 1780s
Artist's signature: Shun'ei ga (drawn by Shun'ei)
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; nishiki-e; hashira-e
John Chandler Bancroft Collection, 1901.1356
Japanese monkey (Macaque Fuscata) wearing a vest has snatched a love letter from two young lovers. Using the "slice of life" pillar-print format to its advantage, Shun'ei suggests a budding romance as he shows the young man lifting up the woman so that she can recover the letter from the monkey. However, the monkey has scurried onto a high pine tree branch and mischievously holds up the letter, just out of their reach. Notes:Pillar PrintsProvenanceJohn Chandler Bancroft, Boston, MAOn View
Not on view
