Plum Tree (c. 1700): Art, History and Details

Plum Tree (c. 1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ogata Kōrin (Japanese, 1658–1716).

The work and its context

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

Ogata Kōrin had to think through his design carefully to create these white plum blossoms and deliver their effect, as he used the reserve technique—where selected areas of the painting surface are left unpainted—to achieve it. He probably roughed in the tree before applying an ink wash to the entire silk surface, except where he intended to place the flowers. He likely then returned to articulate the petals and, in some cases, the pistils and stamens. The composition shows the tree twisting out of view, only to return with a branch of new growth jabbing forth from an old, broken limb, thereby heightening the visual impact of the blossoms.

Object facts

• Title: Plum Tree
• Date: c. 1700
• Creator attribution: Ogata Kōrin (Japanese, 1658–1716)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink on silk
• Dimensions: Image: 94 x 35.4 cm (37 x 13 15/16 in.); Including mounting: 177.2 x 51.8 cm (69 3/4 x 20 3/8 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1983.10

A detail from the museum

The Rinpa style of painting is named for Ogata Kōrin, even though he did not create it.

Collection credit

John L. Severance 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 (1984): 38-79.
• Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

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.