Suzuki KIITSU
(Japan 1796–1858)
Birds and flowers
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
In this painting flowers of all seasons such as wisteria (spring), poppies (summer), bush clover and bellflower (autumn) are combined as if to celebrate a timeless world of flowers. Yet one cannot miss the loss of petals on the poppy which holds the centre of the painting - an unmistakable sign of impermanence. It is this awareness, subtly expressed in works of art, that resonates in the mind of the cultivated Japanese. Kiitsu, a later Rinpa school artist, has used a characteristic Rinpa technique of dropping colour onto another while still wet to create a suffused effect, known as 'tarashikomi'.
The Asian Collections, AGNSW, 2003, pg.232.
- Place of origin
-
Japan
- Period
- Japan: Edo (Tokugawa) period 1615–1868
- Year
- circa 1855
- Media
- Painting
- Medium
- hanging scroll; colour on silk
- Dimensions
- 127.0 x 55.4cm image; 194.0 x 70.0 x 75.4cm scroll [height x width x rod]
- Signature & date
- Signed l.r., in Japanese, ink [inscribed] "Seisei Kiitsu" [and artist's seal]. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1983
- Accession number
- 205.1983
