The forbidding precipice painted on the left screen suggests a site on the Yangzi River where the Chinese poet Su Shi, also known as Dongpo (1037–1101), composed his famous “Ode on the Red Cliff.” The gentler scene on the right screen, depicting a scholar and attendants in a hut in a willow grove, is meant to represent the Chinese poet-recluse Tao Qian, or Tao Yuanming (365–472), at his country retreat. The artist seems to have set up an explicit contrast between the two scenes—Su’s forced exile (wild) against Tao’s self-imposed exile (calm). Born to a samurai-class family near the capital, Nagasawa Rosetsu chose the life of a painter, studying in the Kyoto studio of Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795). Labeled one of the “Three Eccentrics” of the Edo period, he often exhibited a turbulent, bravura brush style and unconventional treatment of subject matter.
Medium:Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and gold leaf on paper
Dimensions:Image (each screen): 67 3/8 in. x 12 ft. 2 3/4 in. (171.1 x 372.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
Object Number:1975.268.75, .76
Signature: (right screen, lower right corner): Heian Rosetsu sha 平安蘆雪寫 above broken, ice-shaped relief seal Gyo 魚; (left screen, lower left corner): Rosetsu sha 蘆雪寫 above broken, ice-shaped relief seal Gyo 魚
Marking:
Yabumoto Shōgorō Japanese, Osaka; Mayuyama & Co., Ltd. , Tokyo; [ Harry G. C. Packard American, Tokyo, until 1975; donated and sold to MMA].
Kyoto National Museum. "Japanese Painting of the Pre-Modern Age," October 9, 1984–November 11, 1984.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seasonal Pleasures in Japanese Art (Part One)," October 12, 1995–April 28, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Resonant Image: Tradition in Japanese Art (Part One)," 1997–98.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of Japan," 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Blossoms of Many Colors: A Selection from the Permanent Collection of Japanese Art," March 21–August 9, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Enlightening Pursuits," February 28–August 5, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Paintings from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection," October 1, 2002–March 2, 2003.
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. "Traditions Unbound: Groundbreaking Painters of Eighteenth-Century Kyoto," December 3, 2005–February 26, 2006.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Flowing Streams: Scenes from Japanese Arts and Life," December 21, 2006–June 3, 2007.
Tokyo National Museum. "The Splendor of Japanese Art by Masters: The 120th Commemoration of 'KOKKA'," July 8, 2008–August 17, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from the Packard Collection," December 17, 2009–June 10, 2010.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met," February 14 - September 27, 2015.
Zurich. Museum Rietberg. "ROSETSU-Ferocious brush," September 5, 2018–November 4, 2018.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination," July 24, 2019–January 31, 2021.
Tokyo Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyūjo 東京国立文化財研究所, ed. Nyūyōku Metoroporitan Bijutsukan, kaiga, chōkoku ニューヨークメトロポリタン美術館，絵画・彫刻 (Painting and sculpture of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) Kaigai shozai Nihon bijutsuhin chōsa hōkoku 海外所在日本美術品調查報告 (Catalogue of Japanese art in foreign collections) 1. Tokyo: Kobunkazai Kagaku Kenkyūkai, 1991, p. 115, cat. no. 353.2.
Kano Hiroyuki 狩野博幸. Nagasawa Rosetsu: senpen banka no entāteinā 長沢芦雪 : 千変万化のエンターテイナー. Bessatsu Taiyō; Nihon no kokoro; 181. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2011, pp. 26–27.
Carpenter, John T. The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, pp. 154–55, fig. 47.
McKelway, Matthew P., and Khanh Trinh. Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush. Exh. cat. Munich: Prestel Verlag, [2018], pp. 260–63; 285, cat. no. 55.
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