Kiyonaga Ito [Cupid and Psyche]

Lithograph - Original
H.C. Edition

Size
Frame: 44cm x 36cm
Image: 30cm x 24cm

Kiyonaga Ito, known as a master of the female nude, graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and pursued techniques for expressing feminine beauty throughout his nearly 70-year career, continuously creating artworks.

Kiyonaga Ito Profile
Born in 1911 in Shitadani, Izushi-cho, Toyooka City, he was a Western-style painter.
His family home was a Zen temple in Izushi, and he was expected to inherit the temple and become a monk, but he chose his own path and aspired to be a painter.

In 1923, he enrolled in the Third Middle School of the Soto sect in Nagoya (now Aichi Junior High School) and began painting with oil paints two years later at the age of 14. Three years later, his middle school teacher introduced him to Saburosuke Okada, and he began attending the Hongō Institute as a student.

Afterward, he enrolled in the Tokyo School of Fine Arts against his parents' wishes. His work Yutenji Landscape was selected for the Kaijudu Exhibition.
In 1933, he submitted Morning Road to the 14th Teiten Exhibition and was successfully selected.
One year after graduating from the oil painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he received a commendation (special selection) for his work 磯人 (Isōjin - Person of the Rocks) at the Ministry of Education Fine Arts Exhibition. He then became a member of the Byakujikai (White Day Society) and began his career as a painter.

After the war, in 1947, he was appointed as a part-time art teacher at Hyogo Prefectural Izushi Girls' High School. In the same year, his portrait Mrs. I was awarded a special selection at the 3rd Nitten Exhibition.
The following year, he returned to Tokyo and submitted Interior to the 4th Nitten Exhibition, receiving a special selection.
In 1953, he established the Ito Painting Institute. Later, he received the Imperial Prize of the Japan Art Academy for 曙光 (Shokō - Dawn Light), which was purchased by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and is now part of the collection of the Japan Art Academy.

In 1996, he became a member of the planning and management committee for the Jingu Museum, commemorating the Shikinen Sengu (decennial shrine rebuilding ceremony), and received the Order of Cultural Merit.
He published Kiyonaga Ito Art Collection in 1971, and art collections in 1989 and 1991. In 2001, he held solo exhibitions celebrating his 90th birthday across five venues nationwide.