Utagawa Kunisada

Life in Yoshiwara. Courtesan thinking of her love on a rainy evening (from Yoshiwara Tokei Nihen Mitate Hakkei series) c. 1825
colour woodblock print on laid Oriental paper
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Purchased 1971

As this work by Utagawa Kunisada and the adjacent work attributed to Kikugawa Eizan illustrate, ukiyo-e compositions often included images of paintings and prints decorating domestic settings.

This concept flows through to Margaret Preston’s views on decorating the home, recorded in publications such as Art in Australia and The Home. Preston advocated the suitability of woodblock prints for the domestic setting: they were works that ‘flat dwellers, could afford … to make our homes more Australian in atmosphere.’

Similarly, Cressida Campbell’s ‘pictures within pictures’ draw the viewer into her domestic realm.