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Pair of byōbu
or folding screens in two panels, painted on silk in mineral pigments,
gofun or clam shell gesso, and sumi ink, with a scene of Gifu
river-fishing cormorants gathered around the cormorant baskets on the
beach. Signed by the artist on the lower-left side of the left-hand
screen: Eishū Ga or Painted by Eishū, and sealed
twice: Eishū Gashoku or Painted in Color by Eishū,
and then: Ei; and on the lower-right side of the right-hand screen
again sealed twice: Eishū Gashoku or Painted in Color by
Eishū, and then: Ei (Katō Eishū, the
gō or art name of Katō Einosuke, 1873 –
1939). With roiro mirror-polished, black lacquer frames.
Taishō 5 or 1916.
These
screens were painted for exhibition at the 10th Bunten in
Taishō 5, and they are illustrated in the Nittenshi, volume 4,
pages 370 – 371, number 42.
Katō Eishū was born in Aichi Prefecture and first
studied painting in Nagoya under Okumura Sekiran. Afterwards he
continued his studies under Kōno Bairei at the Kyoto Municipal
School of Fine Arts and Crafts. After Bairei died, Eishū
become a student of Kishi Chikudō and Takeuchi Seihō.
He won awards in such venues as the Kyoto City Fine Art and Crafts
Exhibition (Kyōto Shi Bijutsu Kōgei-hin Ten) and the
National Industrial Exposition (Naikoku Kangyō Hakurankai). In
1908, he exhibited for the first time at the Bunten (the 2nd Bunten).
He returned to this government-sponsored venue consistently every few
years, showing at the 4th Bunten in 1910, the 6th in 1912, and the 10th
in 1916. After its reorganization, he showed at the 2nd Teiten in 1920,
the 7th and 8th in 1926 – 1927, the 10th in 1931, the 14th in
1933, and the Bunten Kansaten in 1936. All of these Bunten and Teiten
paintings portray naturalist themes, with images of animals such as
foxes, and many different birds from ducks and cormorants to hawks.
With a
sophisticated naturalism, Katō Eishū paints an
idyllic scene from his childhood on the banks of the Nagara River in
Gifu. Fishermen famously ply the river at night in boats lit by flaming
iron braziers as their trained cormorants hunt the waves. We stand back
from the water’s edge on a late afternoon in late spring or
early summer. Small white wildflowers line the stream. A broad diagonal
of pale green water brightened with very fine gold dust runs across the
top of the composition; the warm sandy beach stretches below. Among a
scatter of grey-white pebbles wait the great, empty cormorant baskets
with their cypress lids. About them wanders a flock of cormorants.
Broad, black strokes render their feathers, while contrasting color
finely details their blue eyes, yellow beaks, and soft pink or white
throats. They cry, flapping their wings and crowding their storage
baskets in anticipation of the evening’s catch. Across the
sand, the slanting afternoon light glimmers on the sand. Dense
applications of gold sunago shadow the ground, thinning where the
sunlight washes the strand. By framing the scene between the calm water
and the motionless baskets in the foreground, Eishū fills the
painting with a feeling of quiet intimacy punctuated by the charming
enthusiasm of the cormorants eager to fish.
67 ¾” high x 74 ½” wide, dimensions of each screen when opened flat.
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