Suzuki Harunobu

ca. 1724-70

Young Beauty Carrying a Child Pulling a Flower Cart

signed Harunobu ga, ca. 1770

chuban tate-e 10 3/8 by 7 5/8 in., 26.2 by 19.4 cm

A teenaged girl, wearing a furisode (lit. 'swinging sleeves') kimono decorated with an alternating pattern of stylized chidori (plovers) and clusters of snow-covered bamboo, walks while holding a small boy in her arms. As she steps forward her kimono opens at the hem to reveal a peek at her bare leg. The child holds a long cord attached to a small flower cart containing a basketwork vase with an arrangement of autumnal leaves and grasses including chrysanthemums and kikyo (bell flowers).

References:
Henry W. Joly, Japanese Works of Art Selected from the Mosle Collection, E.A. Seemann, Leipzig, 1914, portfolio II, plate CLII, cat. no. 1932
Art Institute of Chicago (artic.edu), from the Clarence Buckingham Collection, accession no. 1928.919

price: $ 12,000