Pumpkin Vine and Horse Fly
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1825-1833
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)
notes: label: Signatures
content: Signed: Zen Hokusai Tameichi hitsu.
label: Marks
content: Contains seal.
label: Label
content: Hokusai painted this small work after he reached the age of sixty. Its composition, brushwork, and color demonstrate perfect technical control. The inclusion of a flying insect resembles the formula that Hokusai adopted in his "Large Flowers" print series in the 1830s. This painting was among the first group of Hokusai works purchased by Charles Lang Freer in 1898. Freer had already developed a taste for the simple compositions and pleasing colors of paintings by artists such as Ogata Korin (1658-1716), who introduced a style of painting from Kyoto to Edo in the early eighteenth century.
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: Edward S. Hull Jr., New York to 1898 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Edward S. Hull Jr. in 1898 [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. 171, pg. 38, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Edward S. Hull Jr. was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa’s (1853-1908) lawyer. Hull often acted as an agent, facilitating purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa, as well as purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa's
label: Provenance
content: well-known associate, Bunshichi Kobayashi (see correspondence, Hull to Freer, 1898-1900, as well as invoices from E.S. Hull Jr., 1898-1900, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). See also, Ingrid Larsen, "'Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures': Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum," Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), pgs. 15 and 34. See further, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art, (Washington, DC and New York: Freer Gallery of Art and H. N. Abrams, 1993), pgs. 133-134.
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: Hokusai: Mad About Painting (November 20, 2019 to January 9, 2022)
label: Exhibition History
content: Hokusai (October 25, 2005 to May 14, 2006)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Edward S. Hull Jr. (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: fly
label: Topic
content: flower
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: ukiyo-e
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: F1898.111
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and color on silk
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 35 × 54.4 cm (13 3/4 × 21 7/16 in)