Early 20th Century Meiji Japanese Screen Byobu Gold Framed 4-Panel Late Winter Early Spring Egrets Camellia Flowers

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Painting, four-panel folding screen.
Birds and flowers of late winter, early spring: lone white egret on willow tree branch in … Read more Painting, four-panel folding screen.
Birds and flowers of late winter, early spring: lone white egret on willow tree branch in snow; camellia blooms and buds
gold background
Colours and gold on paper
Brocade border
Wood frame with brass metal hardware

Attributed to the Manner of: Watanabe Shiko 渡辺始興 of the Rinpa School

Dimensions: Height: 27 inch. Width: 53 inch

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The early Kano school took as its model the great Chinese landscape painters of the Song. Increasingly, however, the highly modulated ink outlines of this tradition were combined with gold leaf and the spectacularly decorative colouring of the native Yamato-e school, with its seasonal motifs. The contrived compositions here of the willow tree bending towards the centre is influenced by famous examples painted in Kyoto by both Tan'yu and Sansetsu in the earl 17th century.

This screen depicts the bird and flower of early spring and late winter and is a rare work with this particular combination of motifs. The earth and sky are gold.
This screen employs the 'dami-e' method of color application, popular during the Momoyama period, in which brilliant colors were applied almost as thickly as lacquer. The usual tension and animation characterizing painting of this period are evident here, though the scenes are unusually tranquil.
In the Momoyama period, trees were usually depicted as great, vital living entities, their thick trunks and branches often made to extend even beyond the borders of the paintings. Here, the miniaturization of the limbs of the willow tree - tucked neatly within the confines of the painting - reminds the viewer of bonsai. See less