Paulownians and Chrysanthemum
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Mineral Pigment |
| Current Location: | The Cleveland Museum of Art |
| Location History: | The early provenance of Paulownians and Chrysanthemum remains undocumented. The work was later part of the American foundation for the Maud E. and Warren H. Corning Collection, Cleveland, Ohio. It was then given to the Cleveland Museum of Art. |
Sakai HÅitsu was an elegant artist and monk from the Edo period who connected the noble style of Rinpa to a more intimate view of nature in this two-panel screen. As a member of a prominent samurai family, he later spent years trying to recreate the work of Ogata KÅrin using techniques. In this work, created in 1810, you can see his distinctive use of a technique called tarashikomi, which consists of applying wet paint to wet paint, through the mottled texture of the mossy trunk of the gnarled tree that balanced the composition on top of a shimmering background of gold-leaf. The stylized blue river flows through the piece with rhythmic silver swirls suggesting a "stream of consciousness" between the towering physicality of the tree to the transient appearance of flowers below it; thus suggesting that beauty is not in one static moment but rather is in the fluid transition from one phase to another. HÅitsu expresses a message of co-existing in equilibrium through the use of bold colour placed equally to a vast and simple background showing that for life's exuberance to exist it must be contrasted by stillness. It is a lavishly elaborate celebration of the natural world that feels both great in the use of gold-leaf and very personal in its soft, floral details.