Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History



  • Midnight: The Hours of the Rat; Mother and Sleepy Child, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1790
    Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, 1753–1806)
    Polychrome woodblock print

    H. 14 3/8 in. (36.5 cm), W. 9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm)
    Rogers Fund, 1922 (JP1278)

    Kitagawa Utamaro, one of the most prolific artists of the genre of portrayal of beautiful women, was extremely interested in images of mother and child in daily life. This print belongs to a series entitled Fuzoku Bijin Tokei (Women's Daily Customs). To illustrate midnight, Utamaro has chosen a mother who sleepily emerges from her mosquito net to attend to her child, who rubs the sleep from his eyes. The personal, quotidian nature of the subject exemplifies the new interest in the individual that emerged during the Edo period.

    This work of art also appears on Connections: Motherhood

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    Midnight: The Hours of the Rat; Mother and Sleepy Child, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1790
    Kitagawa Utamaro (Japanese, 1753–1806)
    Polychrome woodblock print

    H. 14 3/8 in. (36.5 cm), W. 9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm)
    Rogers Fund, 1922 (JP1278)


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