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Your galleryThe Love Letter
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Follow the letter from her hands down to the floor, then look out through the open door and the round window to the snow-laden bamboo.
The Art Institute of Chicago dates this print 1765, the year, the V&A notes, when printing in many colors from separate blocks was perfected. It is classed as a surimono, a print made privately, on commission, to mark an occasion. On a snowy day a young woman reads a long letter, while a companion lies under the quilt beside her, the letter’s end trailing past.
Color woodblock print; chuban, surimono · 26.1 × 20.4 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Love Letter
- Artist
- Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信 Japanese, 1725 (?)-1770
- Date
- 1765
- Medium
- Color woodblock print; chuban, surimono
- Dimensions
- 26.1 × 20.4 cm (10 1/4 × 7 7/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of H. R. Warner
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Ukiyo-e c. 1600–1900
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.