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Gallery Text

No painter developed a more singular literati style than Gyokudō, who, at the age of 50, retired from his position as a provincial bureaucrat and spent the rest of his life traveling around the archipelago with his sons, playing the zither and painting in return for lodging. He received no formal painting training but developed a uniquely expressive pictorial language that elaborated on a Chinese texture stroke known as the Mi dot, in which the brush is pressed onto the surface of the paper to form a fingerprint-like impression. Gyokudō transformed the Mi dot into a series of horizontal strokes to create shimmering landscapes such as this unusually large painting. Each of these works invariably includes a traveler like the one seen here crossing the bridge in the foreground.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
TL42642.11
People
Uragami Gyokudō 浦上玉堂, Japanese (Bizen 1745 - 1820)
Title
Quiet Pleasure in the Mountains
Other Titles
Original Language Title: 山中静楽
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
hanging scroll, painting
Date
c. 1810
Places
Creation Place: East Asia, Japan
Period
Edo period, 1615-1868
Culture
Japanese
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/361435

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Dimensions
painting proper: H. 118 × W. 52.5 cm (46 7/16 × 20 11/16 in.)
overall mounting, including roller ends and suspension cord: H. 211 × W. 76.5 cm (83 1/16 × 30 1/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • signature: 玉堂 [Gyokudō]
  • seal: square, intaglio: 白髯琹士 [White-Haired Zither Master]

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Promised gift of Robert S. and Betsy G. Feinberg
Object Number
TL42642.11
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), p. 58, fig. 45
  • Rachel Saunders, ed., Catalogue of the Feinberg Collection of Japanese Art, brochure, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), p. 64, cat. 53

Exhibition History

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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