An Impertinent Woman Print

What a hellraiser this lady is, having a glass of wine on a Friday evening. She’s from the series ‘A Parent’s Moralising Speeches’, an 1802 ukiyo-e print by the eminent Japanese artist and printmaker Kitagawa Utamaro. It’s always the parents’ fault.

Kitagawa was one of the few ukiyo-e artists to achieve fame throughout Japan in his lifetime and the first to use the okubi-e style (showing only the head and torso) to depict women, focussing primarily on their facial features.