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Tree Peonies and Chinese Poem on Peonies

Painting by Matsumura Keibun Japanese
Inscription by Rai San’yō Japanese
ca. 1830s
Not on view
Matsumura Keibun carefully brushed these peonies to impart subtle changes of color to each petal and leaf, conveying three-dimensionality. Keibun was the half brother and pupil of Matsumura Goshun (1752–1811), who founded the Shijō school of painting in Kyoto. A quatrain of Chinese verse, composed and fluently brushed in cursive and semicursive scripts by the celebrated Confucian scholar Rai San’yō, praises the peonies:

洛水春風常掩關　不從姚魏酔雕欄　
秋燈半壁高齋夜　却白霜縑看牡丹

As spring breezes reach the capital’s river,
my gate remains shut,
and I do not become drunk and lean on balustrades
to admire peonies of the houses of Yao and Wei.
Rather, on this autumn night,
when a lamp lights up half of my study,
I prefer to gaze quietly upon
these painted peonies on the frost-white silk.

—Trans. Tim T. Zhang

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 松村景文筆　牡丹図・頼山陽筆　七言絶句
  • Title: Tree Peonies and Chinese Poem on Peonies
  • Artist: Painting by Matsumura Keibun (Japanese, 1779–1843)
  • Artist: Inscription by Rai San’yō (Japanese, 1780–1832)
  • Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
  • Date: ca. 1830s
  • Culture: Japan
  • Medium: Pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color on silk
  • Dimensions: Image (each): 55 × 22 3/8 in. (139.7 × 56.8 cm)
    Overall with mounting (each): 87 1/2 × 27 5/16 in. (222.3 × 69.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2022
  • Object Number: 2022.432.22a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Asian Art

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