Kitagawa Utamaro's 'Standing Courtesan Reading a Letter': the collaborative conservation of a master scroll painting and its silk mount. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Kitagawa Utamaro's 'Standing Courtesan Reading a Letter': the collaborative conservation of a master scroll painting and its silk mount. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)
- Main Title:
- Kitagawa Utamaro's 'Standing Courtesan Reading a Letter': the collaborative conservation of a master scroll painting and its silk mount
- Authors:
- Kusunoki, Kyoko
Pullan, Monique
Harrison, Anna
Oka, Iwataro-Yasuhiro
Sugiyama, Keisuke
Cartwright, Caroline - Abstract:
- Abstract: In 2014 the British Museum acquired a little-known masterpiece painting, 'Standing Courtesan Reading a Letter', by the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753?–1806). Originally a hanging scroll, the painting arrived with its top and bottom mounting silks ( joge ) missing, but the inner mounting silks ( chūberi and ichimonji ) were still intact. The inner middle border silks—the chūberi —were constructed from recycled high-quality kimono silk with couched metal thread embroidery, which was partly detached and unravelled. This article accounts for the conservation and remounting of the painting, including the retention and conservation of the middle border silks, and discusses the decision-making processes regarding the re-use and replacement of the mounting silk from the perspective of curators and conservators from Japan and the UK. It also reports on how the project was undertaken as part of the Collaborative Project for the Conservation of Japanese Paintings in the British Museum, with BM conservators working together with scroll mounting conservators from the Association for Conservation of National Treasures (ACNT) of Japan, supported by the Sumitomo Foundation.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of the Institute of Conservation. Volume 44:Issue 1(2021)
- Journal:
- Journal of the Institute of Conservation
- Issue:
- Volume 44:Issue 1(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 44, Issue 1 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 44
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0044-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 47
- Page End:
- 65
- Publication Date:
- 2021-01-02
- Subjects:
- Japanese scroll mounting practice -- textile conservation practice -- collaboration -- conserving metal thread embroidery -- re-use of mounting silks -- Kitagawa Utamaro
Art -- Conservation and restoration -- Periodicals
Paper -- Preservation -- Periodicals
Monuments -- Conservation and restoration -- Periodicals
Art -- Conservation and restoration
Monuments -- Conservation and restoration
Paper -- Preservation
Periodicals
702.8805 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcon20?selectedTab=citation&emc=nv#.VlR2RFInyic ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/19455224.2020.1863241 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1945-5224
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22498.xml