Hen and Rooster with Grapevine
Itō Jakuchū Japanese
Not on view
Barnyard fowl of every variety were among Jakuchū ’s favorite subjects. Here, the heroic rooster directs his piercing gaze upward while standing on one foot, lifting his flamboyant tail; a hen, waiting for him to crow, admires his gallant figure. Jakuchū , who devoted his entire life exclusively to painting, was known as one of the “Three Eccentrics” (san kijin) of eighteenth-century Kyoto. He and his fellow Eccentrics, Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) and Soga Shōhaku (1730–1781), were also known for their flamboyant social lives.
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