Chrysanthemums

Object Details

• Artist

  Ito Jakuchu 伊藤若冲 (1716-1800)

• Description

  A low screen depicting chrysanthemums in full bloom, the plant's stem curving from right to left, on gold-leafed ground. The silent silhouettes of the white blossoms are contrasted with the variegated leaf shapes, rich in greens above and touched with brown below.

• Inscriptions

  1. (Y. Shimizu, from an exhibition label, 1981, see Comment 2) The stylistic attribution to Ito Jakuchu is supported by one of the pair of partially legible seals stamped on the lower right of the Freer screen. The top square seal in relief reads "Yu - (?)-sai tosho (?) (^j^)" recalling a similar seal stamped on a painting of Grapes done by Jakuchu in the 1750s. The bottom seal has not been deciphered.

• Label

  Jakuchu is regarded as one of the foremost individualist painters of eighteenth-century Japan. Owing allegiance to no particular stylistic school, Jakuchu--also a greengrocer in Kyoto's central market--received some professional training but painted only avocationally until his early forties. Friendship with important Zen prelates allowed him to study major collections of Chinese and Japanese paintings held in temple collections.

  Jakuchu was ultimately a master of both polychrome and ink-monochrome forms. In this comparatively early work, he reveals his love for pattern and detail. The complex arrangements of green tones in the rendering of leaves are particularly telling of his interests.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 1 (August 18, 2007 to February 24, 2008)

  More Than Flowers: Sources of Tradition in Japanese Painting (September 2, 2001 to November 24, 2002)

  Japanese Art (May 9, 1993 to June 27, 1994)

  Autumn Colors (October 19 to December 20, 1984)

  Rimpa Screens (October 9, 1980 to December 21, 1981)

  Untitled Exhibition, North Corridor (November 20, 1969 to December 11, 1984)

• Origin

  Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• 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

  Ito, Jakuchu

• Place

  Japan

• Topic

  Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Plants

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Paintings