Moonlight Revelry at Dozo Sagami
date: label: Date
content: late 18th- early 19th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿 (1753-1806)
notes: label: School/Tradition
content: Ukiyo-e
label: Label
content: Utamaro is known mainly for his sumptuous woodblock prints portraying women. Moonlight Revelry, a masterpiece among his few paintings, once formed a set of three on the themes of "Snow," "Moon," and "Flower." This painting shows the spacious salon of an elite pleasure house located in Shinagawa, once a suburb of Edo (now Tokyo), the center of the shogun's government. Here Utamaro used principles of European perspective, which had begun to be incorporated into Japanese art during the eighteenth century, to depict a dramatic architectural setting while maintaining the elevated viewpoint of traditional Japanese painting.
label: Label
content: This painting illustrates on a grand scale many of the Japanese ideas that transformed James McNeill Whistler's work. The elevated viewpoint and such compositional formulas as a woman leaning against a railing facing the bay appear in The Balcony (see F1892.23). Whistler's paintings also reveal his study of Japanese color composition.
label: Provenance
content: To 1903
label: Provenance
content: Hayashi Tadamasa (1853-1906), Paris and Tokyo, to 1903 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1903 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased at the Hayashi sale, through Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), Paris, in 1903 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Curatorial Remark 1, undated folder sheet note, in the object record.See also, Original Kakemono List, L. 295, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Inventing Utamaro: A Japanese Masterpiece Rediscovered (April 8 to July 9, 2017)
label: Exhibition History
content: Freer: A Taste for Japanese Art (July 1, 2006 to January 1, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Floating World: Ukiyo-e Paintings and Prints (December 8, 2002 to May 26, 2003)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler & Japan (May 14, 1995 to January 1, 1996)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (November 7, 1986 to July 19, 1988)
label: Exhibition History
content: Bicentennial Exhibition: Japanese Art (December 15, 1975 to November 10, 1976)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art—Paintings, Pottery (August 18, 1967 to September 20, 1971)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art, Galleries 3, 4, and 5 (January 1, 1963 to September 16, 1970)
label: Exhibition History
content: Ukiyo-e Exhibition (August 7, 1961 to January 1, 1963)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Hayashi Tadamasa 林 忠正? (1853-1906) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: music
label: Topic
content: moon
label: Topic
content: ocean
label: Topic
content: boat
label: Topic
content: koto
label: Topic
content: shamisen
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: ukiyo-e
label: Topic
content: kakemono
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1903.54
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and color on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 147.4 x 321 cm (58 1/16 x 126 3/8 in)