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Oct 26, 2012

A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm

1897

John La Farge

(American, 1835–1910)

America, 19th century

Watercolor and gouache over graphite

Support: Cream(2) wove paper laid down on beige(1) cardboard

Sheet: 27.3 x 38.9 cm (10 3/4 x 15 5/16 in.); Image: 25 x 33.7 cm (9 13/16 x 13 1/4 in.); Secondary Support: 28 x 40.8 cm (11 x 16 1/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1939.267

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The spots of paint on the bottom left corner of this sheet show where the artist tested colors before applying them to his composition.

Description

In the late 19th century, John La Farge was one of the first American artists to take a serious interest in Japanese art. This watercolor was produced after La Farge visited Japan in 1886, where he studied Daoism and painting with the writer Okakura Kakuzō (1862–1913). Here, he employed Western modeling and depth, building the water’s mass through transparent washes of light and dark blue, but also simulated the asymmetrical composition, lyrical tone, and bright blue color palette of contemporary Japanese woodblock prints. Hinting at the relationship between humans and the natural world, the ocean’s tempestuous curls echo the swirls of dense gouache in the imaginary figure’s robes, merging the figure of the “rishi” with the surging waters behind him. According to the artist's writings, “rishi” designates a powerful being who has reached immortality by following Daoist teachings. However, it is possible that La Farge misunderstood the term rishi: Resshi—the Japanese pronunciation of Liezi (列子), is a legendary Daoist philosopher who could ride the wind.

Provenance

1898-?

(Doll and Richards Gallery (est. 1866), Boston, MA.)

?-1939

The Wheelwright family, Boston, MA. Mary C. Wheelwright [1878-1958], Boston, MA, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1939.

1939-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.

Citations

Doll and Richards Gallery. Exhibition and Private Sale of Paintings in Water Color Chiefly from South Sea Islands and Japan by Mr. John La Farge. Boston: Doll and Richards Gallery, 1898. Mentioned: no. 17.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Herbert E. Winlock, and Royal Cortissoz. An Exhibition of the Work of John La Farge, New York, March 23 to April 26, 1936. New York: Blanchard Press and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1936. Mentioned: no. 47

United States. Review of Withheld Reimbursements of Rights-of-Way Costs of the Federal-Aid Highway Program; Report to the Congress of the United States [on the] District of Columbia Government. 1967. Mentioned: cat. no. 119, p. 31

Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of an Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today. Cleveland: Artcraft Printing Co. and Cleveland Museum of Art, 1937. Mentioned: p. 31, no. 119

Burchfield, Louise. "Rishi Calling up a Storm" by John La Farge." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 10 (1939): 159-60. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp.159-160 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 562 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 188 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 188 archive.org

"A Check List. American Paintings and Water Colors of the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Early Twentieth Centuries in the Cleveland Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 1 (1973): 21-35. Mentioned: p. 30, no. 123 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 233 archive.org

Lefor, Patricia Joan. “John La Farge’s Japan: An instance of Oriental influence in American Art.” PhD, diss. Northwestern University, 1978. Mentioned: pp. 156-157

Kuwabara, Sumio. John La Farge and Okakura Kakuzo: On their ideological relationship. 筑波大学芸術学系研究報告第 1 輯 Journal of the Institute of Art and Design of the University of Tsukuba, no.1 (1980). Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 7-10, 29, no. 1

Foster, Kathleen A., Henry A. La Farge, H. Barbara Weinberg, Linnea H. Wren, James L. Yarnall, and Henry Adams. John La Farge: Essays. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 53-54, p. 265, cat. no. 69, fig. 35

Henry Adams. “First ‘a marvel,’ then out of fashion, a fine artist returns.” Smithsonian Magazine 18, no. 4 (July 1987): 46-59. Reproduced: p. 50

Yarnall, James L., and John La Farge. John La Farge, Watercolors and Drawings. Yonkers, N.Y.: Hudson River Museum of Westchester, 1990. Mentioned: cat. no. 152, p. 132

Yarnall, James L., and John La Farge. John La Farge: Watercolors and Drawings. Yonkers, N.Y.: Hudson River Museum of Westchester, 1990. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 14, 64, 117, 132, no. 152, pl 14.

Westgeest, Helen. Zen in the fifties: Interaction in art between East and West. Zwolle: Waanders Publishers, 1997. Mentioned: p. 43; Reproduced: p. 42, no. 22

Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: cat. no. 91, pp. 218-219, p. 296; Reproduced: p. 219

Furuta, Ryō, ed., 岡倉天心: 近代美術の師 Okakura Tenshin: kindai bijutsu no shi, Bessatsu Taiyō Nihon no kokoro, vol. 209. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2013. Reproduced.

Exhibition history

Exhibition of Works by Winslow Homer and John La Farge. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (organizer) (June - August 1936).

Exhibition and Private Sale of Paintings in Water Color Chiefly from South Sea Islands and Japan by Mr. John La Farge. Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston, MA (March 18 - March 30 1898).

Exhibition of American Painting from 1860 Until Today. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-October 4, 1937).

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

The Sea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 23-October 25, 1950).

John La Farge. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC (organizer) (July 10-October 12, 1987); Carnegie Museum of Art (November 7, 1987-January 3, 1988); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (February 24-April 24, 1988).

John La Farge: Watercolors and Drawings. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY (February 9, 1990-April 21, 1991); Terra Museum of American Art (June 15-August 11, 1991).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.267|author=John La Farge|year=1897|access-date=10 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm

A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm

John La Farge

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