Landscape Screen - Winter
Artist/Culture
Kaiseki, Noro
(Japanese, 1747–1828)
Date1767–1828
Mediumink and light color on paper
Dimensions171.8 x 372.1 cm (67 5/8 x 146 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineMr. and Mrs. Harold L. Levin Fund
Terms
Object number1983.53
Label TextThe screen paintings belong to a transitional period of the literati artist Noro Kaiseki's work, painted when he was changing from a style based on that of his teacher, the nanga tradition master Ike no Taiga (1723-1776), to one informed by a systematic study of Chinese literati sources. Kaiseki was inspired when traveling and sketching in the Japanese mountains and was also increasingly influenced by the styles of Chinese Yüan dynasty masters, such as Wang Meng (1308-1385) and Huang Gongwang (1269-1354). In 1797 Kaiseki left Kyoto and returned to his native Wakayama to serve the lord of Kii Province.
Restricting his painting to a few motifs, Kaiseki created a mood through brushwork, tonality and compositions that emphasize emptiness and isolation. In Autumn Landscape a wide path leads past a cluster of huts, where two men converse, to a pavilion at the edge of the river. Two small boats with fishermen lead the eye across to the far shore. The viewer is also invited to meander from another hut, in the foreground, across bridge and up to the majestic mountains and waterfalls beyond. As often seen in Kaiseki's later work pine trees help create links to the middle ground.
In Winter Landscape the viewer enters the composition via a spit of land. In the rustic huts framed by gnarled trees, a man is seen warming himself by a brazier and two figures converse. A fisherman in a boat directs the eye across the river to a village surrounded by straight-stemmed trees and distant, snow-covered mountains. The profusion of dots along the outlines of the rocks and mountains suggests the date of the screen paintings (about 1809); the artist eliminated this technique in his later work.ProvenanceJames Freeman, Kyoto JapanOn View
Not on view
