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The Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's Garden

John La Farge American
1887
Not on view
On a trip to Japan with Henry Adams in 1886, La Farge enlisted watercolor—the familiar medium of the traveling artist—to create studies for illustrations and to paint sheets for exhibition. He executed this bold and monumental composition after his return to New York, using a watercolor sketch done during his travels as well as photographs that he and Adams had taken. The Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, a fifty-foot-high bronze cast in 1252, is renowned for its colossal size, its peaceful demeanor, and its unusual site in the open air surrounded by mountains and trees.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's Garden
  • Artist: John La Farge (American, New York 1835–1910 Providence, Rhode Island)
  • Date: 1887
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor and gouache on off-white wove paper
  • Dimensions: 19 1/4 x 12 1/2 in. (48.9 x 31.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of the family of Maria L. Hoyt, 1966
  • Object Number: 66.143
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Noh Dancer, John La Farge American, Wood engraving on Japan tissue
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Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport), John La Farge American, Watercolor and gouache on white wove paper mounted on gray pulpboard, with cut-out "mat" of off-white laid paper, American
Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport)
John La Farge
ca. 1886–87
Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine Midwinter Number: February 1881
John La Farge
Fernand Harvey Lungren
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The Wise Men out of the East, John La Farge American, Wood engraving
The Wise Men out of the East
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