Artwork Details
67-3/8 x 149-3/16 in. (each)
PeriodProper left screen: artist's signature, seals, and date in lower proper left corner Inscribed and signed: [reads Painted by Gyokusen on a summer’s day during the kanoe no i (sexagenary cycle date corresponding to) the 44th year of Meiji (1911)] 明治四十有四年 辛亥夏日 玉泉寫 [Meiji yonjū-yū-yonen kanoe no i natsu no hi Gyokusen utsushi] Seal, square intaglio: [reads Shigemine] 重岑 Seal, circular relief: [reads Gyokusen] 玉泉
Accession NumberJane Weldon Myers Art Fund. Restoration was made possible by exchange through Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Harvey D. Lovett and Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Herzman.
CopyrightAsian Art (Japanese and Korean)
Color Palette(Shibunkaku Co., LTD.) Kyoto, Japan; purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2022.
Thirty greater white-fronted geese captured in a myriad of poses, some intriguingly intertwined, are spread across 12 panels to create a lively and lovely wintry panorama in this work. Golden clouds of mist curtail spatial recession by bringing the motifs up to the frontal plane, adding an abstract element to the composition. The scene combines modern naturalistic depiction of the geese with a more traditional treatment of the rocks and snow-covered grasses. From ancient times, Japanese poets have lyricized the loneliness or desolation of winter using the calls of geese in flight.
Gyokusen became head of the Mochizuki School of painters when he was barely 18 years old, and he participated in the 1855 reconstruction of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. He was an important teacher and figure in Kyoto’s art circles and later (1904) was named an Imperial Household Artist.
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