Winter landscape: a ravine
date: label: Date
content: 1883
label: Period
content: Meiji era
name: label: Artist
content: Kano Hogai 狩野芳崖 (1828-1888)
notes: label: Label
content: This evening landscape reflects the artist Kano Hogai's study of earlier Chinese and Japanese ink painters, including Sesshu (1420-1506). Many of Hogai's landscapes reflect his study of the dense rock and mountain compositions and the rendering of spatial depth that are characteristic of Sesshu. Hogai's approach to the traditional subject of ink landscape painting stresses dramatic compositions featuring strong contrasts of ink tonality and selective reduction of detail that creates a somewhat abstract image. Hogai had not yet begun his study of Western art, but his emphasis of rational articulation of space contributed to the acceptance of his work by foreign collectors and audiences.
label: Label
content: This landscape was exhibited in Japan in the 1884 Second Competitive Show for the Promotion of National Painting that was sponsored by the Meiji government to promote the preservation and revival of traditional painting at a time when Western painting was of increasing interest to some Japanese artists. The painting had been commissioned by the American educator and art patron Ernest F. Fenellosa, who had taken a personal interest in Hogai's work since seeing a painting of his in an exhibition the previous year.
label: Provenance
content: To 1902
label: Provenance
content: Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853-1908), New York, NY, and Spring Hill, AL, to 1902 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1902 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Ernest Francisco Fenollosa in 1902 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Kakemono List, L. 283, pg. 65, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Freer: A Taste for Japanese Art (July 1, 2006 to January 1, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art of the Meiji Era (September 20, 1997 to April 26, 1998)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (July 1, 1974 to April 10, 1978)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (January 1, 1963 to July 1, 1966)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 1 and 2 (February 25, 1956 to January 1, 1963)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Paintings (October 25, 1955 to November 23, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art, 1951 (January 23, 1951 to February 25, 1956)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853-1908) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: winter
label: Topic
content: Meiji era (1868 - 1912)
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: kakemono
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1902.226
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 136.9 × 61.8 cm (53 15/16 × 24 5/16 in)