The Bathtime

Kitagawa Utamaro often took his inspiration from the lives of common people; he treated the theme of mother and child with more poignancy than most artists did. In Bathtime he depicted a mother performing a daily task that centers directly around her child. The woman hunches over as she bathes her son. In one hand the child holds a toy water bucket, which both echoes the activity in the tub and instructs him in the rituals of bathing; with the other hand he grabs his mother's arm to push her away. To enhance the visual excitement, Utamaro crops the bucket, the woman's leg, and the child's kimono. Prints such as these were the inspiration for the first series of prints made by the Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt. You can see some of them in Cassatt's life story.  <3

Kitagawa Utamaro was one of the greatest ukiyo-e masters. As we love Japanese art, we created a set of 50 postcards, including (of course) Utamaro.  :)