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Passing the Bamboo Grove

Suzuki Harunobu

1890

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Impressionism Realism Late 19th Century

Dominant colour

Passing the Bamboo Grove is a 1890 by Suzuki Harunobu, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Suzuki Harunobu
When & what style?: 1890 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

This painting shows a young woman walking in a bamboo grove. She's dressed in traditional Japanese clothing. The woman in this scene likely represents a story from Chinese legend, where a young person braves cold weather to gather food for their parents. This story is one of the Twenty Four Paragons of Filial Piety. The artist made another version of this scene, where the woman is actually digging for bamboo shoots. You can learn more about this style by looking at the work of artist Suzuki Harunobu.

The story of this work

Overview

The young woman in this print likely stands in for Meng Zong, one of the Chinese Twenty Four Paragons of Filial Piety. Legend has it he went out in the dead of winter to dig bamboo shoots for his aged parents. Harunobu designed a calendar print for the year 1765 with a more explicit allusion to the theme. It shows a young woman actively digging for bamboo shoots. The first state of this print was privately issued as a calendar print for 1766, with the months of the year depicted in the woman's sash. It was illegal to sell any type of calendar without a government license, and a second state…

Read the full account in the museum source.