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Four Chinese male figures in robes stand in golden clouds, moving towards the right, one riding a dragon.

Two men, standing in the third panel from left, walk together toward left, one has his back to us, the other holds up a palm leaf book, his smiling mouth is open. Two figures follow behind them, a young man riding a small dragon holds a small harp-like instrument up to his mouth. An older man stands behind him holding a hooked staff. The dragon is wrapped in a cloud. A lightly drawn deer looks to the right in the clouds near upper right. Clouds are rendered in gold. The two end panels are blank except for continuation of clouds.

Gallery Text

Goshun initially trained under poet and literati painter Yosa Buson (1716–1784), but subsequently adopted many of the ornamentalizing habits of the Maruyama studio. This pair of screens decoratively depicts seven of the eight Chinese immortals, an established literati ink-painting theme. At the head of the group is Daoist scholar Dongfang Shuo, who famously stole the legendary peaches that grant eternal life; the elderly magician Zhang Guolao walks alongside a dragon at the rear, his mule transformed into a folded sheet of paper tied to his staff. They and their immortal companions are rendered relatively simply in ink. However, the work is theatrically elevated by a generous sprinkling of several types of gold, which forms drifting clouds that imbue the celestial scene with a mystic beauty.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2017.223
People
Goshun 呉春 (Matsumura Gekkei 松村月渓), Japanese (Owari 1752 - 1811)
Title
Seven Chinese Immortals
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting, screen
Date
late 18th-early 19th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Edo period, 1615-1868
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/340395

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, gold, and sprinkled gold on paper
Dimensions
painting proper, each panel: 153 × 63.5 cm (60 1/4 × 25 in.)
overall width when spread flat: 381 cm (150 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: right screen, lower right corner: 呉春 [Goshun]
  • seal: upper; square, intaglio: 呉春之印 [Goshun no in]
  • seal: lower; square, intaglio: 伯望 [Hakubō]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Harry Packard, Kyoto, Japan, (by 1987)], sold; to Robert and Betsy Feinberg, Bethesda, MD (1987-2017), gift; to Harvard Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
Accession Year
2017
Object Number
2017.223
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), pp. 80-81, fig. 70
  • Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 60-61, cat. 48

Exhibition History

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu