Landscape in the style of Shen Zhou

Object Details

• Artist

  Nakanishi Koseki (1807-1884)

  Shen Zhou 沈周 (1427-1509)

• Description

  A typical literati theme is invoked for the subject of the scroll. Approaching a simple cottage at the foot of a rolling mountain is a scholar in a boat who sits back while the boatman poles the craft across a lake. An empty pavillion high on a mountain ledge brings Ni Tsan to mind and serves also to allude to the beauty of the panorama below. Soft mist blurs the diagonal view into the far distance at each side of the main land mass, and sprinklings of spiky grass and expressive moss-dots impart a rhythmic quality to the scene. The trees are rendered with many kinds of lush foliage patterns, using combinations of dark and light and thick and thin inkstones.

• Inscriptions

  1. (Julia K. Murray, excerpted from entry 57, A Decade of Discovery, 1979) On the painting, the artist uses the signature Koseki Hisashi, Koseki being his art-name and Hisashi part of his original name, Nakanishi Hasashi. Three of his seals appear on the work. In the lower right-hand corner there is a tall rectangular seal with the intaglio legend Sekizan-danryu. A pale, relief seal reading Sosashi appears before the inscriptions. An intaglio double-seal impressed over his signature at the lower end of the inscription is partially illegible; the lower half consists of the characters Koseki.

• Label

  Japanese painters of the Nanga school admired and followed the styles and cultural ideals of Chinese scholar-painters. During the nineteenth century, Nanga painters were able to study genuine Chinese paintings rather than the illustrated print books that had served as painting manuals for eighteenth-century artists.

  In this painting, Nakanishi Koseki, who pursued his study of painting in the Osaka-Kyoto region, closely followed the style of the Chinese painter Shen Zhou (1427-1509). In Koseki's inscription, written above the landscape, he praised Shen Zhou's vigorous and free brushwork, which he strove to follow in his portrayal of a scholar approaching a secluded cottage by boat.

  The spontaneity of Koseki's brushwork and his masterly control of ink tones closely resembles the work of his Chinese paragon.

• Provenance

  To 1977

  Dr. Frederick Baekeland, New York City, to 1977 [1]

  1977

  Charlottesville/Albemarle Foundation for the Encouragement of the Arts, Charlottesville, VA, purchased from Frederick Baekeland in 1977 [2]

  From 1977

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charlottesville/Albemarle Foundation for the Encouragement of the Arts in 1977 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] Frederick Baekeland sold this object to the Charlottesville/Albemarle Foundation for the Encouragement of the Arts, Virginia for the purpose of donating it to the Freer Gallery of Art in memory of Dr. Harold P. Stern (see Curatorial Note 5 in object record).

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The object was transferred from the Freer Study Collection to the Freer Permanent Collection on March 3, 1978.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Japanese Art of the Meiji Era (September 20, 1997 to April 26, 1998)

  Japanese Art (April 13 to November 21, 1995)

  Japanese Nanga School Painting (November 7, 1985 to March 9, 1987)

  Japanese Scholar-Painters (November 7, 1985 to November 26, 1986)

  A Decade of Discovery: Selected Acquisitions 1970-1980 (November 9, 1979 to May 22, 1980)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Dr. Frederick Baekeland (1928-2017)

  Charlottesville/Albemarle Foundation for the Encouragement of the Arts

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of the Charlottesville/Albermarle Foundation for the Encouragement of the Arts in memory of Harold P. Stern

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

  The information presented on this website may be revised and updated at any time as ongoing research progresses or as otherwise warranted. Pending any such revisions and updates, information on this site may be incomplete or inaccurate or may contain typographical errors. Neither the Smithsonian nor its regents, officers, employees, or agents make any representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information on the site. Use this site and the information provided on it subject to your own judgment. The National Museum of Asian Art welcomes information that would augment or clarify the ownership history of objects in their collections.

Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1850s, 1680s, 1670s, 1860s, 1870s, 1660s

• Name

  Charlottesville/Albemarle Foundation for the Encouragement of the Arts, Baekeland, Frederick

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Water, Mountains, Landscapes, Boats and boating, Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Meiji era (1868 - 1912), Kakemono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings