Pigeons at Sensōji (Asakusa Kannon Temple)

Object Details

• Artist

  Watanabe Seitei 渡辺省亭 (1851-1918)

• Description

  The scene is autumnal. Pigeons are variously comported in front of the main complex of building at Sensoji (Asakusa Kannon Temple) in Tokyo. The location is indicated in the inscription. Falling gingko leaves suggest the season. The atmosphere seems to evoke clouds of incense or the settling in of a dusky haze.

• Inscriptions

  The work is signed in gold and dated using a peculiar system adopted by the Meiji government in which a national era called "Kigen" was inaugurated. The year corresponding to 600 BC was the "First Year of Kigen," thus, this painting created in 1877 bears the date Kigen 2,573. The artist's signature is rendered "Seitei Watanabe Yoshimata," presenting, in sequence, a studio name, family name and personal name.

• Label

  Pigeons flock on a stone lantern and around a ritual water cistern at the entrance to the famous Buddhist temple complex Sensoji, in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. The artist renders the birds and falling ginkgo leaves with characteristic delicate, crystalline brushstrokes. The haze of incense smoke pervades the autumnal scene. The massive scale of the unseen temple structure—only a few feet away—is obliquely referenced by the painting’s monumental scale.

  If spiritual sentiment is indicated, Seitei, like many of his late nineteenth-century contemporaries, prefers soft allusion to overt iconography. Seitei achieved national prominence when he received an award for his design work at the Japan National Industrial Exposition in 1877. This painting was produced the same year. In 1878, he exhibited in the Paris Exposition and stayed on for several years to study painting in Europe. Indeed, this painting is reported to have passed into French hands shortly after its creation and remained in France through the twentieth century.

• Provenance

  1878-1884

  Giuseppe de Nittis (1846-1884), purchased at Exposition Universelle de 1878, Paris, France [1]

  1884- ?

  Léontine Lucile (Gruvelle) De Nittis (1843-1913), inherited upon death of her husband [2]

  ?-2000

  Unidentified French Collector [3]

  2000

  Robert G. Sawers Ltd., London, purchased from an unidentified French collector [4]

  From 2000

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Robert G. Sawers Ltd. [5]

  Notes:

  [1] Giuseppe De Nittis was an Italian-born impressionist painter who studied alongside Édouard Manet. He lived and worked in both Paris, France and Barletta, Italy. Inspired by the arts of Japan, he developed a small, albeit significant, collection of Japanese works.

  This painting is likely the same kakemono depicting pigeons "frolicking at the edge of a stone basin," which De Nittis purchased at the Exposition Universelle. See Louis Gonse, "L'Art Japonais" [book] Tome 1 (Paris: A Quantin, 1883), p. 307 and Edmond de Goncourt, "La Maison d'un Artist" [book] Tomb 2 (Paris: G. Charpentier, 1881), p. 351.

  The painting remained in De Nittis' collection until his death in 1884. See Manuela Moscatiello, "La collection d'art japonais e Giuseppe De Nittis" in "Arts Asiatiques" [Journal] Vol. 59 (2004), pp. 127 and 132. The probate inventory prepared after De Nittis' death is reproduced in Moscatiello's article, p. 132. Watanabe Seitei's painting is likely the work itemized as "un panneau en soie, les pigeons, prise soixante francs" (silk

  panel, pigeons, valued sixty francs)."

  [2] When her husband died, Léontine De Nittis inherited all her husband's collections. Faced with substantial debt after his passing, she sold off select works to individual collectors. There was never a large, public sale. When Léontine died in 1913, she bequeathed her property and the remainder of her husband's estate to the Town Hall of Barletta, Italy, where Giuseppe was born. One can see this the De Nittis Collection at the Palazzo Della Marra in Barletta, Italy. See Moscatiello, 131.

  This work never went to Barletta. Rather, Léontine sold this painting sometime after De Nittis death, while living in Paris.

  [3] See note 4.

  [4] Robert G. Sawers, owner of the London-based gallery, Robert G. Sawers Ltd. reported that the painting had been in France since shortly after the date inscribed on the painting, 1877, and that he purchased it from a French collector. Sawers did not identify the French collector. See acquisition justification, February 2000.

  Between 1972 and 2015, Robert G. Sawers owned and operated the gallery Robert G. Sawers Ltd. in West Hampstead, London. He specialized in the sale of Japanese prints and drawings.

  [5] The Freer Gallery of Art purchased the work from Robert G. Sawers Ltd. on February 8, 2000. See Robert G. Sawers Ltd. invoice, original in object file.

  Research updated February 28, 2023.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Feathered Ink (August 27, 2022 to February 20, 2023)

  Birds and Beasts in Japanese Art (January 31 to July 18, 2004)

  Religious Art of Japan (December 18, 2002 to January 4, 2015)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Robert G. Sawers Ltd.

  Giuseppe de Nittis (1846-1884)

  Léontine Lucile de Nittis (1843-1913)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1870s

• Name

  Robert G. Sawers Ltd., de Nittis, Giuseppe, de Nittis, Léontine Lucile

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Art, Kannon, Temple, Incense, Japanese Art, Meiji era (1868 - 1912), Bodhisattva, Pigeon, Kakemono

• Culture

  Buddhists, Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings