The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks

c. 1767

Suzuki Harunobu

(Japanese, 1724–1770)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
color woodblock print, with embossing
Sheet: 27 x 19.2 cm (10 5/8 x 7 9/16 in.)
The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith 1985.304
Location: Not on view

Description

A girl steps onto a veranda after a bath to look at a pot of pinks. A warm breeze stirs the poem-strip tied to the windbell above her. Irises bloom in the pool in the background. The print has been identified as the summer subject in a set of four flowers representing each season and is considered to be one of Harunobu’s most enchanting designs. One of the most celebrated and productive of all ukiyo-e artists, Harunobu is widely recognized as the first Japanese printmaker to create designs by printing each color in the image with a different block. These prints came to be known as nishiki-e, or brocade pictures, suggesting their resemblance to the gorgeous brocades worn at the time. The embossing on the waves in the stream and on the flowers was created by using unpigmented blocks during the printing process.
  • ?-1942
    Henri Vever [1854–1942], France
    March 26, 1974
    (Sotheby & Co., London, UK, March 26, 1974, part I, lot 48)
    1974?-?
    (R. E. Lewis, Inc., California, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith)
    ?-1985
    The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899-1998] given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Vignier, Charles, H. Inada, and Raymond Koechlin. Harunobu, Koriusaï, Shunsho: estampes japonaises tirées des collections de mm. Bing, Bouasse-Lebel, Bullier [etc.] ... et exposées au Musée des arts décoratifs en janvier 1910. Paris: Ateliers photo-mécaniques D.A. Longuet, 1910. cat. no. 137 gallica.bnf.fr
    Sotheby's London. Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books and Drawings, from the Henri Vever Collection: Part I. March 26, 1974. Reproduced: p. 48, lot no. 48
    Hillier, Jack Ronald. Japanese Prints & Drawings from the Vever Collection. London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1976. Reproduced: vol. 1, cat. no 112, pp. 124-125
    “Checklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292–295. Mentioned: p. 292 www.jstor.org
    Grossman, Nancy, James T. Ulak, Marjorie Williams, and Laurence Channing. Art of Japan: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2005. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 105
  • Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 12, 2004- April 10, 2005)
    A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).
    Harunobu, Koriusaï, Shunsho: estampes japonaises. Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, France (January 1910)
  • {{cite web|title=Young Woman Looking at a Pot of Pinks|url=false|author=Suzuki Harunobu|year=c. 1767|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.304