Wall Clock and Beautiful Woman

Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671-1750) was an ukiyo-e painter in the Kyoto-Osaka area in the mid-Edo Period. He first learned painting from Kano Eino (1631-1697) and then also became a disciple of the Tosa school. From around the beginning of the 18th century, he was active as a book illustrator for a publisher Hachimonjiya in Kyoto and involved in the production of over 70 picture books. He exhibited excellent skills in creating brush painting of women portraits as well, having great influence on ukiyo-e painters who later played an active role in Edo, such as Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764) and Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770). In this painting, a woman is operating four large and small weights of a wall clock. She looks down and has somewhat melancholic air. Gold-painted bell, clothing tie-dyed in red, and the white long overgarment with pine straw pattern on it are depicted in great detail, showing that the painting was excellent work created by Sukenobu after he established his painting style. There are a signature of “Painted by Nishikawa Ukyo Sukenobu)” and a square seal of “Nishikawa” in vermilion and a square seal in white at the lower-left corner.