Artwork Page for Heron on a Willow Branch

Details / Information for Heron on a Willow Branch

Heron on a Willow Branch

late 1700s

Maruyama Ōkyo 丸山応挙

(Japanese, 1733–1795)
Culture
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Medium
Two-panel folding screen; ink, color, lacquer, and gold on silk
Measurements
Image: 69.4 x 185 cm (27 5/16 x 72 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1997.108
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Okyo was the most influential painter and teacher of his time in Kyoto. His mastery of brush and ink found expression in a variety of Chinese and Japanese subjects, painting styles, and formats. This depiction of a heron on a willow branch is done in a classical Japanese painting (yamato-e) style, utilizing flat areas of colorful pigments set against an expansive background with little or no spatial depth.
A two-panel folding screen depicts a heron, a white bird with long green legs and a pointed beak, standing on a willow tree branch against a solid gold background. It nestles its head into its body, facing left. The thick, brown branch it stands on juts into the lower right. A singular, narrow branch shoots up at the end, arcing up beyond the screen and back down in three, fine, notched branches on our left. A red stamp is at the lower right.

Heron on a Willow Branch

late 1700s

Maruyama Ōkyo

(Japanese, 1733–1795)
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)

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