Flowering Plum
Artist
Ikawa Sekkaen
Date19th century
Mediumink on paper
Dimensions177.7 x 94.6 cm (69 15/16 x 37 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineAlexander H. Bullock Fund
Object number1983.33
DescriptionHanging scrollLabel TextIkawa Sekkaen lived in Kyoto as a professional Nanga artist. He is best known for painting plum blossoms which as one of the "four gentlemen" (plum, bamboo, orchid and chrysanthemum) was a specialty of scholar-amateur painters in China. The subject's association with Chinese literati culture and the ease with which anyone trained in calligraphy could paint it made it a favorite with Japanese Nanga painters. The inscription, which recounts the Chinese tale the dream of Loufu, adds to the literary and Chinese flavor. It tells of the hero's meeting with the spirit of a plum tree in the form of a beautiful woman on a moonlit night.ProvenanceRobin Fox Cunningham, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
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