Auction: Japanese prints from the personal collection of René Scholten

Prints:

Lot 5

Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770)

Chuban tate-e, O-hyakudomairi no onna (お百度参りの女), Girl performing the o-hyakudo ritual. Signed Suzuki Harunobu ga. Carver Takahashi Rosen. Collectors seals: Wakai Oyaji (わ井おをやぢ) of Wakai Kenzaburō, HV of Henri Vever. 1765. Dim. 27,2 x 19,8 cm.

Estimate 12.000/14.000 euros

Lot 25

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)

Oban tate-e, from the series Sugatami shichinin keshō, Seven Women Applying Makeup Using a Full-length Mirror, Naniwaya Okita. Mirror in mica ground. Signed Utamaro ga, publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō (Kōshodō), censor seal kiwame. Collector’s seal of Wakai Kenzaburō and W. S. 1792–1793. Dim. 36 x 23,9 cm.

Estimate 70.000/100.000 euros

This important collection of Japanese prints includes a little over 160 prints ranging from the great masters of 18th century prints such as Utamaro and Harunobu to the revival of Japanese prints at the turn of the 20th century with the shin-hanga movement (lit. New Prints). Among the Utamaro prints, two exceptional plates by the master will be scattered, including the famous waitress Okita from the Naniwaya teahouse looking at herself in a mirror and the oiran Komurasaki from Gyokuro coming out of the bath. The shin-hanga collection includes works by Hiroshi Yoshida, Hashiguchi Goyō and around fifteen works by Kawase Hasui including the famous Zōjōji temple under the snow.

René Scholten is the President of Scholten Japanese Art which opened in New York in September 2000. Mr Scholten began as an avid collector of Japanese art in the early 1980s, with a particular passion for woodblock prints. His first major purchase was a 1929 woodblock print by Torii Kotondo, "Make-Up." From there, his collection quickly grew, as did his involvement in the Japanese art community of Holland, and beyond. Initially Mr. Scholten focused on collecting the work of contemporaries of Kotondo (primarily shin-hanga artists), but in time he found himself drawn to more traditional ukiyo-e of the 18th and 19th century as well. While he no longer collects in areas that would be in direct competition with the activities of Scholten Japanese Art, an insatiable collector can never completely stop. Mr. Scholten frequently loans works from his collection to museums in Holland and the United States, and continues to supporting a wide range of Japanese art-related projects and institutions. It is a part of this personal collection, assembled with care over a period of fourty years, that he chooses to sell with the auction house Audap & Associés’ assistance.

Sale 16 October 2024, 2pm, Drouot, room 2

Audap & Associés
Viewing, 14-15 October 2024 11am-6pm
And upon appointment at Cabinet Portier until October 10^th

Click here for the full catalogue.

Lot 26

Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806)

Oban tate-e, Yuagari no fuzei, Gyokuro Komurasaki, The Air of One just out of the Bath, Komurasaki of the Gyokuro. Signed Utamaro hitsu, publisher Yamaguchiya Chūsuke. Collector seal of Paul Blondeau (ぶろんどBurondo). Ca.1795-1797. Dim. 38,5 x 25,7 cm.

Estimate 50.000/70.000 euros

Lot 126

Hashiguchi Goyō (1881-1921)

Dai oban tate-e, Keshō no onna, Woman Applying Make-up. Mica ground. Signed Goyō ga and seal of the artist. Carver Takano Shichinosuke. Printer Somekawa Kanzō. Self-published. Dated Taisho 7 (1918). Dim. 55,3 x 39,3 cm.

Estimate 15.000/20.000 euros

Lot 139

Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)

Oban tate-e, from the series Tōkyō nijūkei, Twenty Views of Tokyo, Shiba Zōjōji, Zōjōji temple in Shiba. Signed Hasui and seal Sui, publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. Dated Taisho 14 (1925). Dim. 39,3 x 26,6 cm.