Pines

Cherry blossoms and maples among ragged pines. Mineral pigments on mulberry paper with gold mist clouds. Completely remounted utilizing an antique silk brocade...

Signature reads: Kanshin. Mineral pigments painted on gold dusted mulberry paper with a silk brocade border.  

Mineral pigments on gold leaf. Signature and seal read: Anei H-eishin Boshun ga, dated: late spring 1766 with a dedication to Okyo (Maruyama).

Pines and Cranes Anonymous. Kyoto Kano School. Late 17th/early 18th centuries, circa 1700. Pair of six-panel Japanese folding screens. Ink, gofun, pigment and gold leaf on paper. This bold composition presents two pine trees extending to the left and right across a gold leaf background. One tree is silhouetted against a green ground, golden clouds obscuring its true size, the other stretches across a stylized waterway. The pines are paired with Manchurian cranes with red crests and snow white plumage. Both have been highly auspicious motifs in East Asia since Chinese antiquity. Here the artist utilized fluid and instinctive ink brushstrokes to define the trunk, branches and tail feathers, in strong contrast to the precision and sharp angularity of the crane’s legs and beaks. The adoption of this vast metallic painting support required an unerring sense of design and composition, so that the negative space surrounding motifs could imply context for the otherwise floating pictorial elements. The brushwork detailing the trunks of the pines, the exaggerated dimensions of the pine trees and the strength and dynamism of the composition are all reminiscent of Kano Eitoku...