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Social Sharing
Scene from "The Mikado," with Louise Paullin
1886
William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's popular comic operetta The Mikado (1885) contributed to Japonisme, a vogue for Japanese culture in Europe and the United States. Henry Alexander's image of a San Francisco production includes numerous inaccuracies relative to Japanese culture (such as the presence of an open rain parasol and platform mud shoes indoors). It also reveals the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e (floating world) prints of geishas, which reinforced Victorian ideals of women as passive objects of beauty.
- Artist
- Henry Alexander
- Title
- Scene from "The Mikado," with Louise Paullin
- Date
- 1886
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 15 3/8 x 18 1/8 in. (39.1 x 46 cm)
- Credit Line
- Anonymous gift
- Accession Number
- 1980.50.3