The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Bamboo and Plum

Bamboo and Plum

1500s
(Japanese, active 1504-c. 1589)
Mounted: 198.1 x 60.4 cm (78 x 23 3/4 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

This painting of a white plum (or prunus) and bamboo was once part of a triptych. A central image of the demon-queller Zhong Kui was flanked by this painting and one of a red plum and bamboo. The paintings would have been suitable to hang after the turn of the new year, when Zhong Kui would drive out evil demons, and the year’s first flowers were in bloom. Sesson hailed from what is now Ibaraki prefecture in northern Honshu. A Zen monk, he spent much of his career in the Kanto region, and developed a distinctive style uninhibited by formal training in the Kano atelier.
  • ?-2015
    George Gund III [1937-2013], ?-2015, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2015-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 2015-present
  • Feltens, Frank, Yukio Lippit, and Aaron M. Rio. Sesson Shūkei: A Zen Monk-Painter in Medieval Japan. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, 2021. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 180–181, no. 8
  • Reeds and Geese: Japanese Art from the Collection of George Gund III. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 21-September 3, 2017).
    Ink Paintings and Ash-Glazed Ceramics: Medieval Calligraphy, Painting, and Ceramic Art from Japan and Korea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 19-May 28, 2000).
  • {{cite web|title=Bamboo and Plum|url=false|author=Sesson Shūkei|year=1500s|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.503