hanging scroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1913,0501,0.375
- Description
-
Painting, hanging scroll. Noblewoman from samurai household alighted from palanquin set down beneath grove of pine and flowering cherry trees, being greeted with bows by crouching retainer and maidservants; senior lady-in-waiting of advanced years indicating way to proceed. Ink, colours and gold on silk.
- Production date
- 17thC(late)-18thC(early)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 33 centimetres
-
Width: 52.90 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Clark 1992
A noblewoman from a samurai household has alighted from a palanquin set down beneath a grove of pine and flowering cherry trees and is being greeted with bows by a crouching retainer and maidservants. A senior lady-in-waiting of advanced years indicates the way the mistress should proceed.
Such single-scene hanging scrolls are not common in Moronobu's 'oeuvre' - an incident like this would generally form just a part of one of his much larger screen or handscroll compositions - but seem to have proliferated among the generation of his immediate pupils. A scroll very similar to this in theme and execution in the Ota Memorial Museum (Ota 1985, no. 11), for instance, bears the signature Furuyama Moroshige. Moroshige was the most prolific of Moronobu's pupils, already running an independent workshop by Genroku 2 (1689) (Narazaki 1987, vol. 1, p. 34). Works of this somewhat limited calibre are frequently encountered (see nos 13, 14), and one wonders if, once a more thorough investigation of the Hishikawa school has been carried out, they will come to be evaluated as nineteenth-century copies or pastiches in Hishikawa style.
Literature:
'(Hizo) Ukiyo-e taikan' ('Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European Collections'), ed. Narazaki Muneshige. Vol. 1, Tokyo, Kodansha, 1987, BW no. 4.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings belonging to Arthur Morrison was purchased by Sir William Gwynne-Evans, who presented it to the British Museum in 1913.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1913,0501,0.375
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.1383 (Japanese Painting Number)
