Utagawa Kunisada (attributed to) (Tokyo, Japan 1786–1864 Tokyo, Japan), Woman and Child, 19th century, Ink and watercolor on rice paper, The Dorothy Braude Edinburg (Class of 1942) Collection 1970.34

Although best known as a designer of woodblock prints, Utagawa Kunisada was also a gifted painter. In this ink painting attributed to Kunisada, a mother lays on her back holding her gleeful child aloft, appearing to toss him into the air. Though the color palette is sparse, details such as the billowing fabric of the pair’s clothing and the flyaway hairs escaping the mother’s bun lend a kinetic, playful quality to the image. In offering a look into the private lives of mothers and children in nineteenth-century Japan, this painting illustrates how everyday subjects became increasingly prevalent in the visual arts during the Edo period (1603–1868).

During the summer of 2021, Eleanor P. DeLorme Intern Rachel Beaton (‘21) curated a series of six acquisitions donated by members of the Friends of Art at the Davis, with a focus on the theme of motherhood. Over the course of the 2021-2022 academic year, the Davis will present each artwork individually for a time period of two months. By addressing topics as varied as war, prosperity, intimacy, and reverence, these artworks grapple with the image of the mother as a complex—and often conflicted—figure in both art history and the artists’ personal lives.