On view
Asian Art
Huo Pavilion
Huo Pavilion
Beautiful Scenes of the Four Seasons at a Glance,
1882
Kano Eitoku Tatsunobu 狩野永悳立信, 1814–1891
Japanese
late Edo period to, 1603–1868 | early Meiji era, 1868–1912
2017-110
As the title inscribed at the upper left indicates, all four seasons are experienced simultaneously in this scroll, an otherworldly experience possible through the artifice of painting. Its various pictorial motifs, including the vertiginous mountains, an elderly man and attendant crossing a bridge, the cranes, the flock of geese, and the angular rock forms with hard-edged brushwork, all have roots in Chinese painting. The artist was one of the last of the house of Kanō, a family that had monopolized official commissions for the shogunal rulers of Japan for over four hundred years.
Information
Title
Beautiful Scenes of the Four Seasons at a Glance
Dates
1882
Medium
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Dimensions
Painting: 167.5 × 82.1 cm (65 15/16 × 32 5/16 in.)
mount: 226.7 × 99.2 cm (89 1/4 × 39 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for East Asian Art
Object Number
2017-110
Place Made
Asia, Japan, Kyoto
Signatures
Signed, upper left:
First line of calligraphy: 四時佳景一覧圖 (title)
"Shiji kakei ichiran zu" (Overview of Fine Scenes of the Four Seasons)
Second line of calligraphy: 壬午歲永惪畫 (date and artist signature)
(Painted by Eitoku in the Jingo year (1882))
Inscription
The first line of calligraphy is the painting’s title: 四時佳景一[？]圖 [This translates roughly to “a picture of the delightful scenes of the four seasons”, ie a landscape.]
The second line of calligraphy is the date and artist’s signature: 壬午歲永惪畫 [Translation: Painted by Eitoku in the Jingo year (1882)]
Marks/Labels/Seals
Artist, “Seisetsusai” 晴雪斎, square intaglio, upper seal at top left
Artist, “Tatsunobu no in” 立信之印, square relief, bottom seal at top left
Culture
Period
Materials
Techniques
–2017 Seikado Gallery (Kyoto, Japan), sold to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2017.
