hanging scroll; painting BM-1881-1210-0.1251

Period:Unknown Production date:15thC
Materials:paper
Technique:painted
Subjects:landscape
Dimensions:Height: 148.50 centimetres (mount) Height: 61.60 centimetres Width: 53.30 centimetres (mount) Width: 34.70 centimetres

Description:
Painting, hanging scroll. Chinese landscape. Ink and light colours on paper. Unsigned.
IMG


Comments:On the lefthand edge of the painting there is a section of paper missing as if a seal has been removed, but was there really a seal there to begin with? The composition, manner of drawing the trees,the ‘shun’ strokes and the colour sense all follow Masanobu. The overall impression is of a possible work by the Odawara Kano school. However, the touch is rather too rough to be by an artist such as Maejima Soyu. For the time being I would like to retain the possibility that this is a genuine 16th century work (by an artist of the early Kano school). The overall impression is worsened by the large amount of later inpainting. (This later inpainting is particularly noticeable in the distant mountains and in the groups of trees drawn with dots.) The paper used is no later than the Momoyama or early Edo period (first half of the 17th C). (Kawai Masatomo, 4/1999) It appears to be a Kanto-suiboku style, but difficult to decide. Seems there used to be a seal in the bottom left-hand corner. It was probably by an unknown painter and the seal was eliminated. Probably one of painting leaves pasted onto a folding screen in the original state. Not a fake. The painter was not good enough to create depth in the landscape. (Kawai, 8/2008) ‘1251. Genuine & fine. The work of Masanobu is very rare, & landscapes in colour especially so.’ (unattributed annotations in the specially interleaved Japanese Study Room copy of Anderson 1886)