Summer Flowers (mid-1600s): Art, History and Details

Summer Flowers (mid-1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kitagawa Sōsetsu (Japanese, active 1639–50).

The work and its context

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

White hydrangea, orange-colored demon’s lantern, and greenbrier vine appear together in this scroll. The artist used the dripping-in (tarashikomi) technique to create a sense of depth and dimension in the leaves of the plants. A carefully controlled brush loaded with a high ratio of water to ink or color is key to the success of this brush method. Gold lines indicate the veins of leaves and the seams of pods.

Object facts

• Title: Summer Flowers
• Date: mid-1600s
• Creator attribution: Kitagawa Sōsetsu (Japanese, active 1639–50)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink, color, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 197.6 x 65.5 cm (77 13/16 x 25 13/16 in.); Painting only: 107.5 x 45.8 cm (42 5/16 x 18 1/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1992.380

Collection credit

Bequest of Maud Eells Corning

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.