3-012-019 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Japanese girl painting her lips, 1864. Engraving of a sketch '...by Mr. C. Wirgman, our special artist...[of] a young girl painting her face after the usual daily bath. It is only the young and pretty, in Japan, who ever think it worth while to practice these arts of adornment...The girl seen in our engraving takes extraordinary pains to improve the charms with which Nature has endowed her. She has first whitewashed her face and neck, then she tints her cheeks with lake, and paints her lips brilliantly with a mixture of crimson and gold, using a fine hair brush for the purpose. The effect is rather displeasing to the European eye, but if the Japanese admire it, we can only say it is a matter of taste. Notwithstanding this strange freak of fashion, Japanese women are said to be very attractive'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.