Artwork Page for Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbar, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang

Details / Information for Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbar, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang

Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbar, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang

瀟湘八景の内　平沙落雁図

1788

Tani Bunchō 谷文晁

(Japanese, 1763–1841)
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Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Medium
album leaf remounted as a hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Measurements
Image: 29.5 x 49 cm (11 5/8 x 19 5/16 in.); Overall: 129 x 67 cm (50 13/16 x 26 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1980.188.4
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

This painting was part of a set of album leaves representing the Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang, a theme originating in Chinese poetry and painting that spread to both Korea and Japan. Southern China’s Xiao-Xiang area, where the mist-covered banks of the Xiang River created a complex landscape shifting like the moods and minds of people, captured the imaginations of generations of painters and calligraphers. Inscriptions on these works suggest that they were possibly ordered by newly prominent Japanese Confucian scholars.
An ink and color painting on paper depicts a horizontal landscape in muted tones. On our lower left, a person sits within a small pavilion surrounded by dense blue-gray reeds. A flock of birds flies in a diagonal line toward our middle right. A misty mountain rises in the background above hazy clouds. A small boat floats near the center. Chinese calligraphy and red seals are positioned on our far left and right.

Wild Geese Descending on a Sandbar, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang

1788

Tani Bunchō

(Japanese, 1763–1841)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

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