Lot 3316: Nakai Ranko (1766-1830)

Pair of large six panel screens, ink and gold flecks on paper; the right screen featuring a flock of black birds approaching and pecking the stubble of a wintry field, with weathered susuki at right, the left screen showing two birds winging toward a stream-bank where a third crow stands, as two more perch on the twisted trunk of a bare willow tree at left; signed Ranko with seals Tadashi no in and Haku[yo]
69 3/4 x 160 1/2in (177.2 x 407.7cm)

Born in Osaka, Ranko was a poet and tea master as well as a painter. This work, with its quietly atmospheric setting and use of graduated graded washes reveals the influence of the Kyoto-based Maruyama school.