Screen with Scattered Fans 扇面散図屛風
date: label: Date
content: early 17th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Tawaraya Sotatsu 俵屋宗達 (fl. ca. 1600-1643)
notes: label: Label
content: After fans were painted, they were usually mounted to framework made of wood or bamboo that the owner could fold compactly when the fan was not in use. Occasionally, fans were pasted to folding screens such as this one. Here the fan framework is painted on the gold leaf to resemble bamboo or lacquered wood.
label: Label
content: Japanese fans were decorated with gold or silver or with miniature paintings. Painters enjoyed the challenge of arranging scenes from historical or fictional narrative, landscapes, poems, or birds and flowers within the distinctive flaring shape of the folding fan. Sotatsu, an innovative painter who enjoyed the patronage of aristocrats in Kyoto, headed the fan workshop known as Tawaraya, which produced the fans for this screen.
label: Label
content: The Japanese idea of mounting fans in a scattered pattern intrigued Europeans and Americans during the second half of the nineteenth century, when many new ideas inspired by Japanese art were influencing artists and popular taste. Folding fans were a fashionable element of the furnishings of many nineteenth-century European and American houses. Fans of Japanese design are often an important motif in the work of the American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903).
label: Provenance
content: Unidentified owner, Kaga [1]
label: Provenance
content: To circa 1882
label: Provenance
content: Mr. Yamanaka, to circa 1882 [2]
label: Provenance
content: Mr. Yamada of Koriyama, Japan, purchased from Mr. Yamanaka circa 1882 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1899 to 1900
label: Provenance
content: Yamanaka & Company, puchased from Mr. Yamada in 1899 [4]
label: Provenance
content: From 1900 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1900 [5]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [6]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] According to Curatorial Remark 3 in the
label: Provenance
content: object record: "Not from Original Screen List. Formerly owned by Mr. Yamada of Koriyama, Yamada. Mr. Yamanaka sold this screen to Mr. Yamada about 1882 and bought it back again in 1899. Originally, Mr. Yamanaka says it was owned in Kaga."
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [4] See note 1. See also, Cuatorial Remark 1 in the object record, as well as Original Screen List, L. 37, pg. 7, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [5] See note 4. The majority of Charles Lang Freer’s purchases from Yamanaka & Company were made at its New York branch. Yamanaka & Company maintained branch offices, at various times, in Boston, Chicago, London, Peking, Shanghai, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. During the summer, the company also maintained seasonal locations in Newport, Bar Harbor, and Atlantic City.
label: Provenance
content: [6] 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: Rinpa Screens (February 25, 2023 to February 24, 2024)
label: Exhibition History
content: Sotatsu: Making Waves (Saturday, October 24, 2015 to Sunday, January 31, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Screens (May 9, 1993 to November 13, 1995)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Fans (April 6, 1984 to October 18, 1984)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ceramics (June 22, 1982 to September 27, 1982)
label: Exhibition History
content: Fans (May 18, 1980 to October 13, 1981)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (October 2, 1975 to October 8, 1976)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art—Paintings (September 16, 1970 to May 2, 1973)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Mr. Yamada
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: fan
label: Topic
content: Japan
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: F1900.24
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Color, gold, and silver over gold on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 154.5 × 362 cm (60 13/16 × 142 1/2 in)