River Landscape
Original Language Title曽我蕭白 山水図
Artist
Soga Shôhaku
(Japanese, 1730 - 1781)
Date1760-1765
MediumTwo-panel screen; ink on paper
DimensionsOverall: 57 x 32 inches (144.78 x 81.28 cm)
Credit LineBequest of Mrs. George H. Bunting Jr.
Object number81-27/38
SignedAt left: "Jasokuken Soga Jirô Kiyû zu"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionSoftly washed, rounded mountains suggest distant background beyond a vast stretch of water on which a long, flat boat, loosely sketched, floats in the middle ground. A village nestled in dense groves of foliage stands on a spit of land that projects from the left to occupy the left, middle ground. Trees have been loosely sketched with a soft, ragged brush, well charged with diluted ink. Earth and rock formations broadly suggested with gradations of dilute ink. The artist played upon dark-light contrasts of amorphous forms. Irregular, overall losses and abrasions, with extensive losses bordering the hinge and along both edges; upper right corner has an insert of damaged paper which appears to be the same original paper; upper paper seams to not match.Gallery LabelA humble boat moves through a misty atmosphere. Dark flocks of birds add a sense of sound and motion, in contrast to the quiet, round silhouettes of mountains that seem to disappear in the distance. In the open riverscape, we find a populated area with houses and more boats offshore. These are visual elements and compositions Japanese artists adopted from the Chinese ink landscape painting tradition, which was in vogue among Japanese elites in the 1400s. Soga Shōhaku followed the convention, including ink of ranging density and brushwork. He also incorporated his own distinctly expressive use of ink near the boats on the riverbank.
With David Newman, London, by October 7, 1976;
Purchased from Newman by Karen Dean Bunting (1912-1981), Shawnee Mission, KS, October 7, 1976-1981 [1];
Her bequest to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1981.
NOTES:
[1] The Newman invoice is in the Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.
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