山本梅逸筆　蓮池白鷺図|Egrets in a Lotus Pond

Yamamoto Baiitsu

1852 · Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk · Asian Art

A flock of egrets has descended upon a pond where lotus plants are bursting into bloom. Yamamoto Baiitsu, one of the most prolific and highly esteemed Nanga (Literati) painters of the Owari domain (present-day Nagoya), was renowned for his bird-and-flower paintings and ink landscapes. This composition departs from his standard output by taking the two primary pictorial motifs—egrets and lotuses—and repeating them in profusion. The effective use of perspective adds a naturalistic flavor to the depiction not often found in the artist’s works. Baiitsu also mastered the “boneless” (mokkotsu) painting technique, in which outlines are discarded and pigments naturally pool to form the edges of forms, as seen in the rendering of the lotus leaves.

Artist

Yamamoto Baiitsu

Date

1852

Medium

Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Fishbein-Bender Collection, Gift of T. Richard Fishbein and Estelle P. Bender, 2015