18th Century and Earlier Paintings

This is an antique Mythology Painting with Diana, end of the 18th Century. This oil painting on canvas has a gold leaf frame. It is a beautiful ancie...

This is a Portrait Artwork of three Muses Dancing. This oil painting has an original gold leaf frame realised in the 1800s. Portraits of Muse offers Three Dancers immersed in the ...

Anonymous Kano School Artist Deer & Bush clover Mid 18th century Japanese framed painting. Ink, color, gofun and gold-leaf on paper. Dimens...

Late 18th century, six-panel Japanese screen from the "Rinpa school", painted with mineral pigments and oyster dust.

Baroque painting depicting a young woman dressed as a widow in an implied interior scene. She is seated at a piano with sheet music in one hand while the other rests on the piano key...

Japanese Flowers - Six panels folding screen hand painted on rise paper and gold leaf, Japanese Rinpa School.  

Kano school screen with two doors painted in mineral colors and gold specks on rice paper, early 18th century.

Rectangular porcelain plaque by Sevres with polychrome decoration of a majestic lake scene with figures and animals, a farm and the ruins of an arch on either side of a lake that ext...

Kiyono Yozan (fl. 1688-1704) “Views of the Xiao and Xiang” Six-panel screen, ink and gold leaf on paper. Inscription: Yozan Seal: Issei Dimensions: 105 cm x 258 cm (41” x 101.5”) The eight views of the Xiao and Xiang was first developed in Chinese poetry and painting during the eleventh century. It was introduced to Japan in the fourteenth century and became a major theme in Japanese ink painting. Painters of the Kano school took up the motif in the sixteenth century, and retained it in their repertoire through the early 20th century. The eight views depict two rivers that both converge with Lake Dongting in present-day Hunan Province. While the titles of the eight views were standard, their sequence was not, and artists reordered the scenes to suit their intentions and aesthetic needs. Japanese artists in particular tended to follow a seasonal progression. This small six-panel screen by Kiyono Yozan moves from spring through summer. On the right is a temple high on a peak depicted in spring mist. Fishermen are shown in the glow of the early evening pulling in their nets before returning home. The final scene in the distant fishing village is of rain falling on a summers night. The scene is remarkably calm and tranquil, and has the ability to make the heat of summer disappear. Painted with ink on a gold leaf ground, the scenes are well integrated and balanced to offset the compositional weight of the dominant rocks and mountains. The closer hills are outlined in darker ink applied in layers, while the distant peaks are silhouetted in paler wash. There are other areas where the brushwork is more precise. The pagoda, the little figures and boats, as well as certain branches, are picked out sharply against lighter washes. Much of the paper is left to suggest blank space, creating an overall mood of stillness and contemplation. There is a certain narrative interest in the activities of the figures, but they are largely lost in the vast and mysterious space. Kiyono Yozan (fl. 1688-1704). Given name Kiyono Tsunechika. Student of Kano Tsunenobu (1636-1713). Son of Kano Ikko (d.1695), who was a student of Kano Naonobu...