Lotus Pond with Irises

Artist: Kubota Beisen, Japanese, 1852–1906
Period: Meiji period, 1868–1912
Date: c.1895–98
Material: Hanging scroll: ink and color on silk
made in: Japan, Asia
Classification: Paintings
Collection: Asian Art
Current Location: Not on view
Dimensions: image: 45 1/2 × 16 1/4 in. (115.6 × 41.3 cm)
scroll: 79 × 21 5/8 in. (200.7 × 54.9 cm)
width from roller end to roller end: 23 11/16 in. (60.2 cm)
wooden storage box: 2 15/16 × 3 1/8 × 24 11/16 in. (7.5 × 7.9 × 62.7 cm)
Credit Line: William K. Bixby Trust for Asian Art
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 1:1992

NOTES

This painting depicts a lotus pond with a clump of Japanese iris (Iris ensata; hanashōbu) with angular leaf blades. Kubota Beisen executed the work in a splashed-ink style, using the so-called “boneless” technique (without outlines), which originated in the Tang dynasty of 8th-century China. Modern artists in both China and Japan continually revived ancient painting methods in innovative ways. Much of Beisen’s painting was based on the Chinese literati style known as nanga (southern painting). Quickly executed in cursory brushstrokes, as seen here, his abstracted forms and shapes are still recognizable as mottled decaying lotus leaves.

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