Fish and Plants
1908
ink
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
1908
ink
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Fish and Plants is a 1908 ink by Ikeda Keisen, a Nihonga work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
This painting shows many fish and plants on a gold background. It's made up of six panels, which is a traditional format. The artist included lots of details, like different kinds of fish and plants, and even added some humor to the work, which makes it interesting because it's not just a simple picture of nature. The artist's father influenced this work, as it's based on his sketches. You can learn more about this style by looking at the work of artist: Ikeda Keisen.
Creating these screens was a deeply personal exercise for Ikeda Keisen, who modeled this work on sketches made by his father. He elevated those small-scale images into the subjects of an expansive screen—the most formal kind of finished painting—with a dramatic gold-dust background. The six panels collectively represent an abundant display of more 30 kinds of fish and more than 80 varieties of plant life. These elements are painted with meticulous detail but also tempered with a sense of humor seen, for instance, in the whimsical depictions of many of the fish.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Ikeda Keisen painted delicate ink-and-color screens in the late Meiji era, blending gold leaf and silk in a six-panel work like Fish and Plants from 1908.
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