企画展

　日本には、美しい女性を画題にした「美人画」というジャンルがあります。江戸時代の浮世絵がはじまりともいわれ、喜多川歌麿が町娘を描いた「美人大首絵」が大ブームとなったことでジャンルとして定着しました。 　明治になって西洋文化が流れ込むと美人画も大きく変わっていきます。無表情で画一的な印象すらあった浮世絵美人に比べ、目鼻立ちのはっきりした、より写実的で色彩豊か、あるいは所作や表情が豊かでより個性的な美人が描かれるようになりました。こうした美人画は、時代とともに変わりつつも、今日まで連綿と受け継がれています。 　本展では、美人画の最盛期ともいえる江戸時代の浮世絵から、近現代の日本画にいたる美人画を展示。絵の中に描かれた女性たちの移り変わりを振り返ります。 In Japan, there is a genre of “Bijinga” (portraits of beautiful women). It is said to have originated with the Ukiyo-e of the Edo period, and became established as a genre after Kitagawa Utamaro's "Bijin Okubi-e" (Large-Headed Beautiful Women), paintings of town girls, became a huge hit. As Western culture began to flow into Japan during the Meiji period, Bijinga also underwent a major change. Compared to the expressionless and uniform impressions of Ukiyo-e beauties, beauties began to be depicted with more distinct facial features, more realistic and colorful, or with more individuality in their manners and expressions. While these Bijinga have changed with the times, they have been passed down continuously to the present day. This exhibition will feature Bijinga from ukiyo-e of the Edo period (17-19C.), which could be said to be the heyday of Bijinga, to modern and contemporary (19-20C.) Japanese paintings. We will look back on the changes in the women depicted in these paintings.