Su Dongpo in a Borrowed Hat 東坡戴笠図

Object Details

• Artist

  Tomioka Tessai 富岡鉄斎 (1836-1924)

• Description

  Rainy landscape scene of Su Shih with a bundle of scrolls on his back, wearing clogs and a rain hat walking down a foreground path between a cascading stream and a rocky bank; background with a single figure in a building partly obscured by rain in front of slanting rain-swept peaks; 18 line inscription and three seals of the artist

• Marks

  The collectors seal of Kuwana Tetsujō is impressed on the lower roller knobs.

• Inscriptions

  Box inscription by Kuwana Tetsujō 桑名鐵城 (1864-1939)

• Label

  The revered Chinese scholar, statesman, and poet Su Dongpo (1037–1101) was born on the same date as Tessai, which led the Japanese artist to think they shared a spiritual bond across eight hundred years of time. Tessai’s lengthy inscription at the top of the scroll elaborates on the connection he felt to the literati of the Song dynasty (960–1279). He also quotes a poem by Wang Wenge, a now largely obscure poet active during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). This painting, the first among dozens of renderings of Su Dongpo that Tessai made before his death in 1924, illustrates how strongly the Japanese artist felt connected to the Chinese poet. Tessai devoted this scroll to his close friend Kuwana Tetsujō, whose collector seal is impressed on the lower roller knobs.

• Provenance

  To 2009

  Matsumoto Shoeido, Kyoto [1]

  From 2009 to 2018

  Mary and Cheney Cowles, Seattle, WA, purchased from Matsumoto Shoeido on November 9, 2009 [2]

  From 2018

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, Seattle, Washington [3]

  Notes:

  [1] Per information provided by the Cowles. See Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection 2018 Gift List for Freer/Sackler, object file, Collections Management.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] See Deed of Gift, object file, Collections Management Office.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Meeting Tessai: Modern Japanese Art from the Cowles Collection (August 13, 2022 to January 28, 2024)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Cheney Cowles

  Mary Cowles

  Matsumoto Shoeido 松本松栄堂 (Japanese, 1906)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1910s

• Name

  Matsumoto Shoeido, Cowles, Mary, Cowles, Cheney

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Art, Japanese Art, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings