Artwork Details
57-1/2 x 18-5/16 in. (image) 89 x 25-3/4 in. (overall)
Periodjar-shaped relief seal: Zeshin
Accession NumberMr. and Mrs. William R. Spurlock Fund
CopyrightAsian Art (Japanese and Korean)
Color PalettePurchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 2000
李伯観瀑図
Li Bái (701–762), one of China’s greatest poets, spent years wandering throughout China in political exile. Through his poetry and lifestyle he came to symbolize freedom, spontaneity, and the refusal to be shackled by conventions. With his beloved wine gourd and an attendant nearby, he leans back on his hands in awe of the natural beauty of a towering cataract. The theme of a scholar admiring a waterfall is often associated with Li Bái and his poem “The Ballad of Mount Lu.”
Zeshin was both a lacquer artist and a painter. The long, fluid lines of even tonality in the leaves and grasses, the oily quality of the coloring for the rocks, and the way the figures seem to be cut out and laid upon the surface recall lacquer decoration.
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