An 1802 Japanese woodblock print of the Ukiyo-e style might seem a strange choice for a Czech stamp from 1991. Perhaps not if you think about it in terms of democratizing art from aristocratic collections and presenting them to a wider group of people. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I did a double take in seeing the date on this stamp as 1991, As it looks like something from about 1970. Sure enough it was just the latest of a group of stamps in the style since 1966 showing off art in the collections of public galleries in Czechoslovakia. The later Czech Republic continued the set with a new group of issues in 1998.
Todays stamp is issue A565, a 7 Koruna stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on November 3rd, 1991. The set that year was five stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.
The National Museum in Prague got it’s start in 1818 when Prague was still part of the Hapsburg Kingdom. A group of aristocrats started a Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts. This was perhaps a stopgap as after the French Revolution it was thought that fine art was owned by the people rather than Royal or aristocratic collections. Thus the Society of Patriotic Friends opening displays in converted palaces was perhaps not ideal. Around 1890, the government got into it and built a much larger building to house and control the growing collection. Though this time was still under Hapsburg rule, the museum showed itself as a hotbed of anti Royal Czech nationalism by dropping German in favor of the Czech language.
The woodblock print showed on the stamp dates from 1802 and is titled “Two Maidens” by then prominent Japanese artist Utamaro. He is most famous for prints of attractive Japanese women that he would display with long faces. He also illustrated Japanese books of insects and engaged in a style of erotica called shunga. Shunga literally means spring, but is a euphemism for sex.
Two years after this painting Utamaro got in trouble with the government of Japan. Not for the shunga stuff but rather a series of woodblock prints he did depicting 200 years before Japanese military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Utamaro depicted him cavorting with prostitutes and even handholding with one of his Samurai in a homosexual manner.
Utamaro was only briefly sent to jail, but by 1806 he died. His widow then married one of the students in his art school and they began putting out lower quality woodprints under the name Utamaro II.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering who to toast. The art nationalizers seem like upstarts to me and this Utamaro fellow seems himself a guy trying to get fame and riches by turning an art form mass market with prints of sexy slurs aimed at fools. Feeling the thirst, I come back to the Patriotic Friends of the Arts with their art filled palaces. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.