Preparatory drawing for a print from a triptych showing a beautiful woman in front of a house next to roosters and birds picking foor from the ground c. 1844

This preparatory drawing for a print was made by Utagawa Kunisada, most likely in the early 19th century. It is a sketch in ink on paper, a working draft for a finished woodblock print. Note how the artist used simple lines to capture the scene: a woman stands near a house, surrounded by birds and roosters. It gives you a sense of the artist's process, how he planned the composition and details before carving the woodblocks and applying colors. Woodblock printing in Japan involved a division of labor, with the artist, carver, and printer each contributing their skills. The artist's drawing was transferred to a woodblock, which was then carved to create the design. Ink was applied to the block, and paper pressed onto it to create the final print. This printmaking process allowed for the mass production of images, making art accessible to a wider audience. Looking at this drawing allows us to appreciate the layers of craft and labor involved in creating these images, and it prompts questions about the relationship between art, production, and consumption in Japanese society at that time.