Lot 177: URAGAMI GYOKUDO (1745-1820)

Tencho roen zu (Picture of Tian chang lu yuan ) Signed Gyokudo, titled as above and sealed Kinno Hanging scroll; ink on paper 12 1/8 x 201/4 in. (30.7 x 51.5 cm.) EXHIBITION Fukushima Museum, Aizu Wakamatsu, "Daiikkai kikakuten--Gyokudo to Shunkin, Shukin--Uragami Gyokudo oyako no geijutsu (First special exhibition--Gyokudo and Shunkin, Shukin--Art of Uragami Gyokudo and his sons)," 1994.4.23--6.5 Hayashibara Museum, Okayama, "Seitan nihyakugojunen kinen tokubetsuten--Uragami Gyokudo (Special exhibition: Uragami Gyokudo, 250th anniversary of his birth)," 1995.4.22--5.21 NOTES PUBLISHED: Wakita Hidetaro, Uragami Gyokudo, vol. 20 of Nihon bijutsu kaiga zenshu (Complete Japanese landscape paintings) (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1978), pl. 86. Tanaka Ichimatsu et al., eds., Uragami Gyokudo gafu (Paintings of Uragami Gyokudo), vol. 3 (Tokyo: Chuo Koron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1979), pl. 201, ref. no. 51 (by Yoshizawa Chu). Sasaki Johei, Uragami Gyokudo, vol. 56 of Bukku obu bukkusu (Book of books) Nihon no bijutsu (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1980), pl. 59. Fukushima Museum, ed., Daiikkai kikakuten--Gyokudo to Shunkin, Shukin--Uragami Gyokudo oyako no geijutsu (First special exhibition--Gyokudo and Shunkin, Shukin--Art of Uragami Gyokudo and his sons), exh. cat. (Aizu Wakamatsu: Fukushima Museum, 1994), pl. 64. Hayashibara Museum, ed., Seitan nihyakugojunen kinen tokubetsuten: Uragami Gyokudo (Special exhibition: Uragami Gyokudo, 250th anniversary of his birth), exh. cat. (Okayama: Hayashibara Museum, 1995), pl. 46. Box certification by the painter Kumagai Morikazu (1880-1977). The painting illustrates the Chinese phrase " Tian chang lu yuan," meaning heaven is eternal and the world full of spirits. The phrase, inscribed on the painting, is taken from Nan shi: Sun Shang yun (Southern history: The sayings of Sun Shang). Enclosed by a casually drawn fan shape, the mountain landscape is painted in a dry-brush technique with a crystalline clarity. Delicate vertical striations in the foreground trees add a subtle accent. The painting is thought to date from the last five years of the artist's life. It is closely related in style and date to another masterwork from his final years, Sanko Osen zu (Mountains dyed scarlet) in the Kimura Collection, which is classified as an Important Cultural Property. (See Tanaka Ichimatsu et al., Uragami Gyokudo gafu, vol. 3, pl. 247; Stephen Addis, Tall Mountains and Flowing Waters: The Arts of Uragami Gyokudo (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), pl. 4.).