Artwork Page for Flowers and Grasses

Details / Information for Flowers and Grasses

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
pair of six-fold 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 1968.193.2
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 ink and color painting on a six-fold screen depicts flowering plants against a muted tan background. Across the lower half, dense mounds of white and red chrysanthemums cluster together. To the right, the composition opens to show tall, thin blades of grass and smaller blossoms reaching upward. Layered pigments create rounded, full petals, while delicate lines define the foliage. A small red seal marks the lower left corner.

Flowers and Grasses

mid-1600s

Kitagawa Sōsetsu

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

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