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Gallery Text

Lotuses rise annually from the muddy depths of ponds to bloom with sublime beauty before setting seed, decaying, and disappearing once more. The unearthly flower has long been understood as a symbol of Buddhist enlightenment and rebirth. This large-scale iteration of a lotus pond is painted on two movable screens—ideal for display in Japan’s earliest public exhibitions, initiated in the late 19th century to support the formulation of a representatively "Japanese" aesthetic on the world stage. Shūseki paints the sacred subject matter in a contemporary neoclassical idiom, using the established technique of puddling ink and gold to realize the plant in naturalistic and expressionistic modes simultaneously. The addition of a kingfisher in the right screen and a dragonfly in the left, both captured in the instant before taking wing, poignantly infuses temporal specificity into the otherwise timeless subject.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
TL41729.16
People
Okutani Shūseki 奥谷秋石, Japanese (1871 - 1936)
Title
Lotus Pond
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting, screen
Date
late 19th - early 20th century
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Meiji era, 1868-1912
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/340568

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pair of two-panel folding screens; ink, color, and gold on silk
Dimensions
image only, each panel: 170.5 x 93.3 cm (67 1/8 x 36 3/4 in.)
with mount, each panel: 175.5 x 95 cm (69 1/8 x 37 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: 秋石道人筆 [Shūseki dōjin hitsu]
  • seal: round, relief: 洗耳窟 [Senji kutsu]

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
Object Number
TL41729.16
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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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. 98-99, fig. 85

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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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