Pair of Six-Panel Folding Screens with Peonies and Other Flowers

Karamono with flower arrangements and rare birds Edo period, 18th century Pair of two-panel folding screens Ink, colors, gofun and gold leaf on paper Each 170 by 165 cm ...

This pair of screens belongs to a genre of lyrical paintings of flowers, grasses, and other plants that flourished around the middle of the 17th century and became a specialty of the Sôtatsu studio. The use of a rather complex composition of clusters of flowers and the puddling of ink was initiated by Tawaraya Sôtatsu, the founder of the Rimpa School, who was active from 1600 until 1642. The screens are abstract and decorative but there is, at the same time, a keen sense of naturalism not only in the attention to accurate detail but in the profusion of vegetation. The passage of the year is symbolized by the variety of plants that bloom in different seasons. The tarashikomi - here used on leaves, petals and trunks - is a Classic Rinpa technique in which pale black ink or a color is brushed onto an area of a painting and then either darker ink, or the same or a contrasting color, is dropped into the first before it has completely dried, creating an effect of pooled colors with softly blurred edges. Its delicacy, preciousness, and effeminacy are identified with the over-refinement of its patrons, while the vigor, monochromatic discipline, sharp observation, and virile forms of the Kano school are a testament to the vitality of the rising warrior class. The plants are almost all identifiable: in the summer-spring part, you can find wheat, buttercups, irises, begonias, hydrangeas, coral bells...

The scene is dominated by a plum tree in bloom under which a couple of paradise birds is courting. The screen is crossed by a luxuriant creek, a typical feature of the springtime.  

In the pleasure districts, the stringent codes were meant to be forgotten. In this painting, some clients are watching from outside the teahouse, while some are entering, one of them...

Signed: Josaku Meda. 60. Singed on the back: "Paysage humain" N°14 / 7.1960 / Josaku MAEDA / à Paris Exhibitions: Turin (Italy), Gissi Gallery, Collettiv...

Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and pigments on silk Signature: Zeshin Seal: Tairyukyo Date: circa 1880 Painting size: 98 x 20 cm Mounts size: 182 x 32 cm Shibata Zeshin...

A six panel Japanese screen depicting a landscape scene peonies and sparrows against a gold backdrop of clouds and sky. The colors are vibrant with red and white peonies, green grass...

Stunning Japanese Meiji period six-panel large screen. Featuring blooms of spring flowering white, pink, and red peonies with butterflies over a gilt background. Made in the Nihonga ...

A gorgeous six-panel Japanese Byobu folding screen depicting a nature lake/landscape scene with a water walkway/angular bridge and blossoming iris flowers - perhaps an homage to the famed Irises screens...

Fine antique Chinese hand painted coromandel 6 Panel Screen.20th century possibly earlier. Each panel is hand brushed with gesso before it is being hand painted to give the three dim...

Large six-panelled Chinese hardstone and lacquered folding screen Chinese, Early 20th Century Closed: height 183cm, width 40.5cm, depth 18cm Opened: height 183cm, width 243cm, depth ...

Rimpa floral scene. Pigment on gilded silk, signature and seal read: Hattori Shunyo. Bold colors and strong design elements combined with the trademark tarashikomi (diluted elements created when water is applied to the surface before or after pigments causing them to diffuse) exhibit the artists deep devotion to this important Japanese painting tradition. Notes about artist: Hattori Shunyo (b. 1883) was an artist from Kyoto who graduated the (now) Kyoto Municipal University of Art and fell under the circle of Yamamoto Shunkyo...