
A Professional Baffoon, from a untitled series of 12 prints
Torii Kiyonobu I · c. 1710
- Medium
- Woodblock print; oban, sumizuri-e
- Original size
- 26 × 36.8 cm (10 1/4 × 14 1/2 in.)
- Currently held
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Movement
- Baroque
Bold, theatrical, and unmistakably alive, this woodblock print captures a professional entertainer mid-performance with the raw graphic energy that made Torii Kiyonobu I one of the defining voices of early Edo-period printmaking. Kiyonobu founded the Torii school, a lineage so entwined with kabuki theatre that its artists were effectively the official visual voice of the Edo stage — designing billboards, programs, and promotional imagery for the playhouses. His figures carry that theatrical DNA: limbs thick with coiled tension, outlines that seem to vibrate. The sumizuri-e technique, printing solely in sumi ink without colour, strips the composition down to pure line and contrast, which only amplifies the performer's presence. The Torii school's distinctive worm-and-gourd line — a style of bold, swelling brushwork developed specifically to convey the dynamism of kabuki actors — is visible throughout Kiyonobu's figure work, and this print from the untitled series of twelve is a clear example of that approach applied to popular street performance. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates that graphic intensity into a different medium, preserving the weight of the lines and the theatrical stillness of the figure while giving the image a warmth and texture that print cannot carry.
Hand-painted oil reproduction
Painted in real oil on stretched canvas by master copyists. Delivered unframed — ready to frame at home.
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In I's style.
Send us a photograph of your family, pet, or home — we'll paint it as a custom oil on stretched canvas in any style you like. From £220.

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