COLOUR STUDY

Colour palette

#736548
#CCA368
#2A6345
#988656
#3B4135
#E7BC7F

Approximate colour proportions

#73654819.8%
#CCA36819.3%
#2A634519.2%
#98865615.7%
#3B413514.8%
#E7BC7F11.2%

Estimated from six colour groups in the museum image, including visible paper or borders. Reproduction and lighting affect the result; these are image-area proportions, not pigment measurements.

Purchase, Louisa Eldridge McBurney Gift, 1953 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗

Japan · after 1709

Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges)

Ogata Kōrin

Date: after 1709
Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on gold leaf on paper
Dimensions: Image (each screen): 64 7/16 in. x 11ft. 6 3/4 in. (163.7 x 352.4 cm) Overall (each screen): 70 1/2 in. x 12 ft. 2 1/4 in. (179.1 x 371.5 cm)
Country / context: Japan
Movement / tradition: Japanese art and printmaking
Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Attribution / role: Museum attribution
Pathway: Japanese art and printmaking ↗

ABOUT THIS WORK

Irises extend across a pair of folding screens in ink and colour over gold leaf on paper. The gold is part of the support’s visible surface, not simply a yellow pigment; folding also changes the rhythm of the display.

Original educational overview · based on the linked museum record

Place in the artist’s career

Compare ink plum branches, the glazed dish and the later gold-ground iris screens. Brush-made asymmetry can operate on silk, a shaped ceramic object or a large folding surface. Colour changes with glaze, ink and metallic ground. The dish has collaborative authorship, while “after 1709” is a date boundary, not an exact year.