大蘇（月岡）芳年（1839-92）は、幕末から明治にかけて活躍した浮世絵師で、清方の師である水野年方の師にあたります。「浮世絵最後の巨匠」（「やまと新聞と芳年」『こしかたの記』）と清方が評する芳年は、清方の父、條野採菊が主宰する『やまと新聞』に挿絵を描いていました。
『やまと新聞』では、速記で書き取った三遊亭圓朝の人情噺が呼び物となっており、採菊の自宅で圓朝に噺をしてもらうことがありました。当時まだ少年だった清方は、その席で、芳年の姿を目にします。清方は、「容貌魁偉と形容されさうな、額の廣い、眼の圓（つぶ）らな芳年翁がいつも胸高に腕組みをして、傍眼も觸らずに聴き入つてゐる姿も忘れない」（同上）と述べており、その姿を肖像画に表しました。

Portrait of Taiso Yoshitoshi (Tsukioka Yoshitoshi) (1950)
color on silk; hanging scroll
50.9 x 55.9 cm
(First exhibited at Kaburaki Kiyokata Shinsaku-ten)

Taiso (Tsukioka) Yoshitoshi (1839-92) was an ukiyo-e artist in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate and in the Meiji period, who was also the teacher of Mizuno Toshikata, Kiyokata’s own teacher. Yoshitoshi provided illustrations for the Yamato Newspaper published by Kiyokata’s father, Jōno Saigiku. Writing in Koshikata no ki (Thoughts on the past), Kiyokata comments that Yoshitoshi was “the last master of ukiyo-e (“Yamato Newspaper and Yoshitoshi”).
Sanyūtei Enchō’s ninjōbanashi, emotional rakugo stories captured in shorthand transcriptions, were a big draw for the Yamato Newspaper. Occasionally, Enchō would give performances in Saigiku’s home. A boy at the time, Kiyokata would observe the seated figure of Yoshitoshi. This portrait represents Kiyokata’s description of Yoshitoshi as “a venerable man with a commanding presence and a powerful physique, a broad forehead and rounded eyes, who always folded his arms high over his chest. I will not forget the sight of him listening attentively without as much as a sideways glance” (“Yamato Newspaper and Yoshitoshi”).