Visiting a Friend on a Wooded Cliff

Object Details

• Artist

  Ike Taiga 池大雅 (1723-1776)

• Inscription

  Box inscribed by Tomioka Tessai 富岡鉄斎 (1836-1924)

• Description

  In this narrow hanging scroll, a scholar and his young attendant make their way up a steep pathway toward a retreat, where another scholar gazes into the distance. The painting is executed spontaneously, in quick, repeated brush strokes. Ike Taiga, who became a leading artist of the Nanga school, learned his distinctive style from woodblock-printed manuals on the techniques of Chinese painting. For the themes of his work, he also drew his inspiration from Chinese sources. Here, the inscription on the painting quotes a single line from a Chinese poem: "Mountain ranges of great age, trees one thousand meters high."

• Previous custodian or owner

  Iida Yoshine (1898-1960)

  Mr. and Mrs. Douglas F. and Sanae Reeves

• Provenance

  By 1960 to 1962

  Yoshine Iida, acquired in Japan by 1960 [1]

  From 1962 to 1992

  Sanae Iida Reeves, Arligton, VA, by descent, in 1962 [2]

  From 1992

  Freer Gallery of Art, given by Mr. and Mrs. Douglas F. and Sanae Reeves, in 1992 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] Ownership of the object by the donor's father, Yoshine Iida, is recorded in the 1960 publication Ike Taiga sakuhin shu (see Curatorial Note 4, Ann Yonemura, June 30, 1992, in the object record).

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] Transferred from the Freer Study Collection to the Freer Permanent Collection on December 23, 1994 (see Curatorial Note 4, Elizabeth F. Duley, December 30, 1994, in the object record).

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Sanae Iida Reeves in memory of her father, Iida Yoshine

• 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.

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• 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, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Iida, Yoshine, Ike, Taiga, Tomioka, Tessai, Reeves, Douglas F. and Sanae

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Mountains, Art, Scholar, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Kakemono

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings