Teisai Hokuba (1771-1844) Women and ChildEdo period (1615-1868), circa 1820-40
Kakejiku (hanging scroll), ink, mineral colours and gofun (calcified powdered shell) on silk in silk mounts, depicting two richly dressed women and a male child, the little boy holding up two buds, in a spring landscape with pine, bamboo and flowering cherry blossom, in the background pedlars and peasants walking between rice paddies and a more distant view of a lake, sailing boats and a Shinto shrine; signed Teisai and sealed; with an inner wood storage box and an outer lacquered wood storage box. Overall: 184.5cm x 59cm (199.4in x 23¼in); image: 104cm × 41.2cm (41in × 16½in). (3).注脚One of Hokusai's first pupils, Teisai Hokuba started his career as an illustrator of poetry anthologies and novels, but later specialized in hanging scrolls of beautiful women executed in fine colourful detail, often (as in the present lot) against an ink-wash landscape background depicting the outskirts of Edo.