"New Acquisitions" Exhibition

Kyoto National Museum

This event has ended.

Last year, the Kyoto National Museum received a generous gift of twelve Chinese paintings from the Japanese novelist Sawada Fujiko (b.1946). One of the most noteworthy works among this donation is "Landscape with Birds and Flowers" by the Ming-dynasty painter Chen Zhen, of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, dated to 1640. Executed on silk, this large painting (H. 177.0 cm, W. 91.5 cm) captures a tall mountain, covered lightly with snow, soaring high above an enchanting valley. Cascading from the mountain precipice to the viewer's left is a waterfall flowing down to the ravine into a meandering stream. Two trees stand prominently at the foot of the mountain, surrounded by bamboo, broad-leafed shrubs, and blossoming plum and camellia trees. One interesting stylistic feature is the unusual contrast between the colorful birds the mountain magpies, eagles, and green pheasants painted in striking hues and realistic detail in the foreground, and the almost surreal cliff, depicted in ink and light colors, towering over the valley in the background.
From the Ming dynasty onwards, paintings of landscapes and birds and flowers begin to develop into separate genres. This painting, which would ordinarily represent a winter scene in a set of four hanging scrolls depicting landscapes of the four seasons, is a rare example that successfully reintegrates these two themes. Incidentally, in a letter by the late Edo-period literati painter Okada Hanko (1782-1846), affixed to this painting, Hanko referred to the work as "Landscape Painting with Birds and Flowers." He also noted that it was the prized possession of the 115th Abbot of the Rinzai Zen temple Shokoku-ji in Kyoto, Imyo Shukei (1731-1808), who praised it as an unparalleled masterpiece.
*Exhibiting at the Collections Hall Galleries 13, 14 & 17

[Image: Chen Zhen "Landscape with Birds and Flowers" courtesy of Kyoto National Museum]