A Young Woman with a Cage of Fireflies
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1770
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Shiba Kokan 司馬江漢 (1747-1818)
notes: label: Signatures
content: Signature: Shotei Harushige no zu.
label: Marks
content: Seal: Harunobu.
label: Label
content: Because Kokan's reputation rests on his immersion in Western learning and mastery of European painting techniques and copperplate printing, his painting of a beauty in the traditional ukiyo-e style is rare and confounds expectations. In creating a beauty with a large head and delicately proportioned limbs, Kokan emulates the very popular style of Suzuki Harunobu (1725-1770). Harunobu's paintings and prints were especially fashionable in the 1760s. Kokan's painting here evokes the dense atmosphere of a summer night, as a woman examines a caged firefly.
label: Label
content: Kokan wrote in his own diary that he forged Harunobu paintings after the master's death. This painting bears the Harunobu seal and is signed Shotei Harushige, a name bestowed on Kokan by Harunobu. By 1774 Kokan had turned his considerable gifts to Western astronomy, natural science, and realistic painting in the Western style.
label: Label
content: Kokan's drive to create realistic images is seen in nascent form in this painting. For it he used an ancient Buddhist painting technique of applying pigment to both the front and back of the silk support, creating an illusion of delicate dimensionality. For example, the beauty's underrobe, seen through a semitransparent outer garment is actually painted on the backside of the silk.
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. 154, 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: Sylvan Sounds: Freer, Dewing, and Japan (May 18, 2013 to January 4, 2015)
label: Exhibition History
content: Surveying the Collections: Poets and Parties (July 2, 2000 to February 4, 2001)
label: Exhibition History
content: Bicentennial Exhibition: Japanese Art (December 15, 1975 to November 10, 1976)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 3 and 4 (February 25, 1956 to January 1, 1963)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art, 1955 (October 25, 1955 to November 22, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art (October 3, 1947 to February 25, 1956)
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: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: moon
label: Topic
content: night
label: Topic
content: woman
label: Topic
content: garden
label: Topic
content: firefly
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: ukiyo-e
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: F1898.96
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Color on silk panel
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 93.4 × 33 cm (36 3/4 × 13 in)