Open daily. Always free.
Goshawk on a Snow-covered Pine Branch

Goshawk on a Snow-covered Pine Branch

On View

Not currently on view

Ohara Shoson

The conventional form of hawk paintings was first established during China’s Tang dynasty (618–907), but the most popular model was that purportedly by Emperor Huizong (1082–1135). Hawk paintings bearing Huizong’s signature were repeatedly copied and circulated across East Asia in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. When the Meiji Restoration was initiated in Japan in 1868 to promote industrialization and Westernization, it became popular to combine the traditional theme of hawk paintings with a realistic Western painting style, to show the strength of the reformed nation. Such paintings and prints were well received by foreign audiences. Encouraged by Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908), curator of Japanese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, artist Ohara Shoson exhibited in and exported his prints to the US. He was therefore one of the famous Japanese artists on the American market in the early twentieth century. - Chi-Lynn Lin, "Echoing Overseas" label text, Fall 2022
Artist
Ohara Shoson
(Japanese, 1877 - 1945)
Title
Goshawk on a Snow-covered Pine Branch
Date
ca. 1910
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
422 x 261 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.2809
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

29 May 1930, purchased from Aoyama (Paris, France) by Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Newland, Amy Reigle, Jan Perrée, and Robert Schaap. "Crows Cranes and Camellias: The Natural World of Ohara Koson 1877-1945." Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2010. no. K13.16
  • Roberts, Laurance P. "A Dictionary of Japanese Artists: Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Prints, Lacquer." Tokyo; New York: Weatherhill, 1986. p. 124
  • Merritt, Helen and Nanako Yamada. "Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975." University of Hawaii Press, 1992. p. 116

  • Echoing Overseas: Asian Artistic Exchange: Chazen Museum of Art, 8/8/2022–11/28/2022

The Chazen Museum of Art welcomes comments or inquiries about works in our collection. Please allow two–three weeks for a response. Chazen staff is not able to provide valuations or authentications and such inquiries cannot be answered.

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.