Flying Cranes and Poetry
Mount: 4 feet 2 1/2 inches x 14 3/8 inches (128.27 x 36.53 cm)
Nihon sōshoku-ga no nagare, Ishikawa kenritsu bijutsukan, Kanazawa, Japan, March 15-April 15, 1964, no.8.
Birds, Beasts, Blossoms, and Bugs: The Nature of Japan, U.C.L.A, Los Angeles, CA, Mar. 30-May 23, 1976; Asia House Gallery, New York, NY, Oct. 6-Dec. 4, 1977, no.24.Combining calligraphy and image is a distinct style seen in Japanese paintings. Hon'ami Kōetsu and Tawaraya Sōtatsu are particularly known for their elegant, sumptuous paintings accompanied by calligraphy. The fluently written calligraphy and the image of cranes flying through convey the movement and emotion of the poem:
Even though it is a dreamlike love affair,
Do not tell of it to anyone else,
But now that you say other people know,
I refuse any pillow but your cradling arms.
-Lady Ise (about 877-940 C.E.)
With Mrs. George H. Bunting, Jr., by 1973;
Her gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1973.Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 363 (repro.)
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 391, no. 40 (repro.)
H.P. Stern, Birds, Beast, Blossoms, and Bugs; The Nature of Japan, exh. cat. (New York: Harry N. Abrams in Association with the U.C.L.A. Art Council and the Frederick S. Wight Gallery, Los Angles, 1976), no. 24, p.60, color pl. 6. (repro.).
Ishikawa kenritsu bijutsukan, Nihon sōshoku-ga no nagare, exh. cat. (Japan: Ishikawa kenritsu bijutsukan, 1964), no.8.(repro.)
