Calligraphy and Painting Party (1880): Art, History and Details

Calligraphy and Painting Party (1880) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japanese, 1831–1889); Others (Japanese).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this collaborative painting, artists create works in response to patrons’ requests. Kawanabe Kyōsai painted the figures and outlines of the screens and scrolls, and 10 bunjin completed them. Each calligraphy and painting has a signature. Physician and calligrapher Nakane Hanrei (中根半嶺) (1831–1914) wrote “longevity” (壽) with an enormous ink-filled brush. Painter Fukushima Ryūho (福島柳圃) (1820–1889) did the plum on the folding screen, while Matsuoka Kansui (松岡環翠) (1818–1887) did the lotus; the two seem to be standing nearby, pointing others toward their accomplishment.

Object facts

• Title: Calligraphy and Painting Party
• Date: 1880
• Creator attribution: Kawanabe Kyōsai (Japanese, 1831–1889); Others (Japanese)
• Culture: Japan, Meiji period (1868–1912)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Painting only: 139 x 69 cm (54 3/4 x 27 3/16 in.); Including mounting: 221 x 97.5 cm (87 x 38 3/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1983.88

A detail from the museum

One participant in this gathering appears to be taking a nap.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “Year in Review for 1983.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 71, no. 2 (January 1984): 38–79.
• Kawanabe Gyōsai ten: botsugo hyakunen kinen 河鍋暁斎展 : 没後百年記念. Mito-shi 水戶市: Ibaraki-ken Kindai Bijutsukan 茨城県近代美術館, 1989.
• Graham, Patricia J. "Lifestyles of Scholar-Painters in Edo Japan." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 7 (September 1990): 262–283.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.