Collection Online as of March 22, 2023

Flowers and Trees of the Four Seasons

四季花木図屏風

early to mid-1700s

Part of a set. See all set records

Watanabe Shikō 渡辺始興

(Japanese, 1683–1755)

Japan, Edo period

(1615–1868)

Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, silver, and gilding on paper

Each screen: 155 x 368.5 cm (61 x 145 1/16 in.)

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2021.132

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

One plant in these screens, tumeric, or <em>ukon</em> in Japanese, is found in Okinawa.

Description

The painter Watanabe Shikō had a special interest in scientific realism, based on interactions with his patron Konoe Iehiro. Shikō combined his attention to accurate depiction of plants with strong ink outlines and decorative elements like gold and silver, arriving at an innovative style that influenced many of his peers in the city of Kyoto.

Inscriptions

Inscription

始興之印

Inscription Translation

Seal of Shikō

Inscription Remark

Both screens are impressed with the artist's red seals with characters in reserve.

Provenance

London Gallery, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

2021-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Citations

Kyoto City Art Museum, ed. Rinpa no issai: Watanabe Shikō-ten: Daikakuji shōheiga o chūshin ni [= 渡邊始興: 琳派の異才: 大覚寺障壁画を中心に]. Kyoto: Kyoto City Museum, 1973.

Takeuchi Misako, “Flowers and Trees of the Four Seasons,” in Takeuchi Misako, et al., 琳派 : 特别展 : 美の継承 - 宗達, 光琳, 抱一, 其一 [= Rimpa: Succession of Beauty—Sotatsu, Korin, Hoitsu, Kiitsu]. Nagoya: Nagoya City Museum, 1994. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 39, pp. 201–202

Takeuchi, Melinda. “Watanabe Shikō (1683–1755): Flowers and Trees of the Four Seasons,” in Singer, Robert T, John T Carpenter, et al., Japan Foundation, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan., National Gallery of Art (U.S.). Edo, Art in Japan 1615-1868. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 162, p. 306–307

Fukushi Yuya, “Watanabe Shikō hitsu: shiki sōka zu byōbu [Screens of Grasses and Flowers of the Four Seasons Painted by Watanabe Shikō],” in Kadō: Ikenobo [Way of Flowers: Journal of the Ikenobo School of Ikebana], January 2019, pp. 56–57.

Exhibition history

渡邊始興 : 琳派の異才 : 大覚寺障壁画を中心に [Watanabe Shikouten : Rin pa no isai : Dai kakuji shōhekiga wo chū shin ni]. Kyōto City Art Museum, Kyōto, Japan (March 18–April 11, 1973).

Edo, Art in Japan 1615-1868. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (November 15, 1998–February 15, 1999).

渡辺始興の絵画 [Paintings of Watanabe Shikō]. Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan (December 18, 2018–January 27, 2019).

The Cleveland Museum of Art