Artwork Page for Flowers and Grasses

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Flowers and Grasses

花草図屏風

mid-1600s

Kitagawa Sōsetsu 喜多川相説

(Japanese, active 1639–50)
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Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Medium
One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on paper
Measurements
Image: 153.7 x 329.2 cm (60 1/2 x 129 5/8 in.); Including mounting: 170.2 x 348.4 cm (67 x 137 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1968.193.1
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Kitagawa Sōsetsu painted for the Maeda family, powerful rulers of what is present-day Ishikawa Prefecture on the central northern coast of Honshū, Japan’s main island. Screens served as room dividers and backdrops in Maeda grand residences. This composition is considered one of the artist’s masterpieces. Kitagawa Sōsetsu is thought to have been a student of Tawaraya Sōsetsu, who was in turn the student of Tawaraya Sōtatsu, the Kyoto-based master painter regarded as the creator of the style that came to be known as Rinpa. By selecting a painter of this lineage, the Maeda family consciously connected their aesthetics to those of the imperial capital as a means of proclaiming their elevated status.
A horizontally oriented screen depicts flowering plants against a muted tan background. On the far left, white and red peonies with fluffy clusters of petals grow beside a bamboo trellis. Toward the center, white hollyhocks rise above a dense patch of red and white poppies with dark centers. The painting concludes on the right with a large bush featuring small white flowers above tufts of low grass. Ink and soft colors define the delicate blossoms.

Flowers and Grasses

mid-1600s

Kitagawa Sōsetsu

(Japanese, active 1639–50)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

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