Description
This painting captures the moment when a high-ranking courtesan accompanied by two trainees makes her grand entrance into a salon. The guest of honor, a samurai who reclines beneath a striped robe while dangling his fan, turns from the musical entertainment to gaze at the spectacle of her arrival. The fortunes of everyone in the room depend on how she orchestrates the rest of the evening, as the more the samurai spends on her services, the more trickles down to the other entertainers who are present.
Provenance
(Kenzaburo Marui, Osaka, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (?–1985); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1985–)
Accession Number
1985.17
Medium
hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Image: 56.4 x 135.5 cm (22 3/16 x 53 3/8 in.); Overall: 175 x 144.7 cm (68 7/8 x 56 15/16 in.); with knobs: 175 x 154.9 cm (68 7/8 x 61 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
![Saint Bernard and Saint Catherine of Alexandria with the Virgin of the Annunciation [right panel]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/e6890364-4d99-4684-a62b-5060ee3c3446/full/400,/0/default.jpg)