Artist

Ogata Kōrin

Portrait of Ogata Kōrin
Portrait of Ogata Kōrin

Japanese, 1658–1716

Ogata Kōrin was a Japanese Baroque artist. 25 works are cataloged here, principally at Metropolitan Museum of Art, most of them ink works. Ogata Kōrin was born in Heian-kyō.

Ogata Kōrin (Japanese: 尾形光琳; 1658 – June 2, 1716) was a Japanese landscape illustrator, lacquerer, painter, and textile designer of the Rinpa School. Kōrin is best known for his byōbu folding screens, such as Irises and Red and White Plum Blossoms (both registered National Treasures), and his paintings on ceramics and lacquerware produced by his brother Kenzan (1663–1743). Also a prolific designer, he worked with a variety of decorative and practical objects, such as round fans, writing boxes (suzuribako) executed in relief (makie) or inrō (medicine cases).

He is also credited with reviving and consolidating the Rinpa school of Japanese painting, fifty years after its foundation by Hon'ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) and Tawaraya Sōtatsu (c. 1570 – c. 1640). In fact the term "Rinpa", coined in the Meiji period, means "school of rin". In particular he had a lasting influence on Sakai Hōitsu (1761–1828), who replicated many of his paintings and popularized his work, organizing the first exhibition of Kōrin's paintings at the hundredth anniversary of his death.

Works by Ogata Kōrin

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.