Harvard Art Museums > 2018.356: Fish and Turtles Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Fish and Turtles (Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙) , 2018.356,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Mar 20, 2025, https://hvrd.art/o/340515. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text This screen playfully explores optical reality. The fish and turtles moving through the limpid water lapping at the sand bar are rendered with such scientific accuracy that they can be identified as male and female carp, killifish, and minnows. The fish and turtles are painted on one layer of translucent silk and the water on another, mounted behind the first, so that the creatures appear to swim in the moiré of the silk itself. Despite its novelty, however, this illusory aquatic world still operates within the traditional East Asian framework of auspicious painting, in which the combination of fish, turtles, and pines like those growing at the water’s edge symbolizes wishes for success and longevity. Identification and Creation Object Number 2018.356 People Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙, Japanese (Anafuto, Tamba province 1733 - 1795) Title Fish and Turtles Classification Paintings Work Type screen, painting Date c. 1772 - 1781 Places Creation Place: East Asia, Japan Period Edo period, 1615-1868 Culture Japanese Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/340515 Physical Descriptions Medium Two-panel folding screen; ink and color on silk Dimensions painting proper, each panel: H. 59.2 × W. 89.6 cm (23 5/16 × 35 1/4 in.) with mount, each panel: H. 64.2 × W. 94.4 × D. 1.5 cm (25 1/4 × 37 3/16 × 9/16 in.) Inscriptions and Marks signature: 應舉冩 [Painted by Ōkyo] seal: square, intaglio: 應挙之印 [Ōkyo no in] Provenance Recorded Ownership History [Yanagi Hiroshi, Kyoto, (1989)], sold; to Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg, Bethesda, MD (1989-2018), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2018. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg Accession Year 2018 Object Number 2018.356 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions 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. Descriptions Commentary Tea-size (furosake) screens Publication History Jidai byobu shuka, Shikosha Publishing Co. (Kyoto, Japan, 1990) The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, exh. cat., Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo, 2013), pp. 108-109, cat. 47 Rachel Saunders, "Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection", Orientations, Orientations Magazine (Hong Kong, January/February 2020), vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 20-33, p. 26, figs. 6a and 6b Rachel Saunders and Yukio Lippit, Painting Edo: Selections from the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, 2020), pp. 74-75, figs. 62-63 Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 159, 162, cat. 159, fig. 1 Exhibition History The Flowering of Edo Period Painting: Japanese Masterworks from the Feinberg Collection, Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum, 05/21/2013 - 07/15/2013; Miho Museum, 07/20/2013 - 08/18/2013; Tottori Prefectural Museum, 10/05/2013 - 11/10/2013 Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/14/2020 - 06/06/2021 Subjects and Contexts Google Art Project Related Articles Art Talk: Painting Edo April 29, 2020 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
