- Gallery Text
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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
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- Object Number
- 2017.223
- People
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Goshun (Matsumura Gekkei), 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
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- Medium
- Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and 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
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- inscription: right screen, lower right corner: Goshun
- seal: both screens: Goshun
- Provenance
- [Harry Packard, Kyoto, Japan, (by 1987)], sold; to Robert and Betsy Feinberg, Bethesda, MD (1987-2017), gift; to Harvard Art Museums.
- Acquisition and Rights
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- 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
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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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
- Exhibition History
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32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/09/2017 - 12/07/2017
- Related Works
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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