Flowers and insects

Detail of a pattern
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Terms of Use

Creative Commons

At A Glance

  • Period

    1615-1868
  • Geography

    Japan
  • Material

    Ink, color and gold on paper
  • Dimension

    H x W (.128): 155 x 361.1 cm (61 x 142 3/16 in)
  • Accession Number

    F1907.128-129
  • EDAN ID

    edanmdm:fsg_F1907.128-129

Object Details

  • Artist

    Tosa school
  • School/Tradition

    Tosa
  • Label

    In these screens flower beds stretch in narrow, undulating bands across a ground of gold leaf unadorned except for hovering insects. The sparse composition echoes in much larger scale an established style of floral under-painting rendered on paper intended for use in handscrolls of imperial poetry anthologies, on which a calligrapher would inscribe the poems in the empty spaces. The paintings are probably the work of an unidentified artist of the Tosa school of court painters, based in Kyoto.
  • Provenance

    To 1907
    Unidentified owner, Tokyo, Japan, to 1907 [1]
    From 1907 to 1919
    Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased in Tokyo, Japan, from an unidentified owner in 1907 [2]
    From 1920
    Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
    Notes:
    [1] See Original Screen List, S.I. 134, pg. 36, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
    [2] See note 1.
    [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
  • Collection

    Freer Gallery of Art Collection
  • Exhibition History

    Japanese Screens (March 2007 to January 3, 2016)
  • Previous custodian or owner

    Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
  • Origin

    Japan
  • Credit Line

    Gift of Charles Lang Freer
  • Type

    Painting
  • Restrictions and Rights

    CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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