Young Girl with Umbrella c. 1830s

Editor: This is "Young Girl with Umbrella" by Utagawa Kunisada, a woodblock print from the 1830s. It's really striking how flat and stylized everything is, but still… elegant? What are your thoughts on it? Curator: Elegant indeed! The magic of Ukiyo-e. I see a portrait drenched in subtle defiance. Notice how the downcast eyes of the girl create a world just for her. The umbrella and flute form a shield against the world and her gaze, inward. Does the kaleidoscopic kimono pattern feel confining to you? Editor: Confining... I hadn't thought of it that way! I was so caught up in the detail that it was mesmerising to me. Curator: It's meant to be. Kunisada masterfully employs beautiful aesthetics as a form of restraint, mirroring societal expectations placed upon women, and simultaneously liberating his subject in the intimacy of this art, by revealing a personal, internal world. Do you think it hints at commentary or a statement of some kind? Editor: Hmmm... that makes me think about her youth being kind of sheltered, protected but also maybe... hidden? Like her personality is underneath everything else we see. Curator: Precisely. I love that we can both find our own individual truths within art. It's more than the artist intended, more than what's actually there. It lives and breaths. Editor: So true! I will definitely never see Ukiyo-e prints in the same way again! Thanks for that shift in perspective!