曽我二直庵筆　高士・柏鷹図|Daoist Sage and Hawk

Soga Nichokuan

mid-17th century · Pair of fan-shaped paintings mounted on two-panel folding screen; ink on paper · Asian Art

On the right panel of this screen an elderly man sits in the shade of a grove of trees, a walking stick in one hand. His bald head, scrawny limbs, and bare feet are delineated with smooth brush lines in light ink, while dark spots mark his eyes and the corners of his downturned mouth. The painting was cut down from a larger work, which may have held clues to the identity of the seated figure. The companion piece, on the left panel, depicts a hawk perched on the branch of an oak tree. Soga Nichokuan, well known as a painter of hawks, most likely worked in the vicinity of the port city of Sakai, south of Osaka.

Artist

Soga Nichokuan

Date

mid-17th century

Medium

Pair of fan-shaped paintings mounted on two-panel folding screen; ink on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Gift of the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, 2015