鈴木其一筆　芥子図|Poppies

Suzuki Kiitsu

mid-19th century · Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk · Asian Art

Not all flowers could be found in the colorful gardens cultivated by Rinpa artists through the ages. Yet poppies (keshi) clearly must have been a favorite of their clients, for examples survive from every generation of the school. Earlier, artists of the Sōtatsu studio, such as Kitagawa Sōsetsu (active mid-17th century), as well as Ogata Kōrin and his followers, took inspiration from screen paintings of poppies by Tosa artists, and took the formalization of leaves and petals one step further toward abstraction. By the age of Suzuki Kiitsu, however, attention to detail and a tendency toward naturalistic depictions of flowers became more pronounced. As seen here, the ink-mottling technique (tarashikomi) was used more liberally by later Rinpa artists.

Artist

Suzuki Kiitsu

Date

mid-19th century

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, 2012