↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · late 1790s
Cherry Blossoms in the Wind
Utagawa Toyokuni
Colour palette
#E0C8A3#E7D1AD#E3CDA7#C0A687#E6CEA9#EEDAB7
Approximate colour proportions
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.
Ex coll.: C. C. Wang Family, Gift of The Dillon Fund, 1973 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗
China · ca. 1310
Twin Pines, Level Distance
- Date
- ca. 1310
- Medium
- Handscroll; ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 10 9/16 x 42 5/16 in. (26.8 x 107.5 cm) Overall with mounting: 10 15/16 x 25 ft. 7 11/16 in. (27.8 x 781.5 cm)
- Country / context
- China
- Movement / tradition
- Chinese painting
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Pathway
- Chinese painting ↗
ABOUT THIS WORK
Ink on paper and the horizontal handscroll format shape how this landscape is encountered. The Met dates the work to around 1310; a continuous landscape can unfold through successive sections rather than a single fixed view.
Original educational overview · based on the linked museum recordPlace in the artist’s career
The coloured silk fan contrasts with the ink-on-paper handscrolls. In Twin Pines, contour and dry brush make landscape behave like a language of calligraphic signs. Compare compact colour, extended viewing and exposed paper. The broad date assigned to the bamboo-and-orchid scroll prevents treating it as securely earlier or later than the dated examples.
The artist’s practice
Artist-wide context; individual works may differ.
Media and surface
Ink on paper and colour on silk preserve different relationships between brush and support.
Marks and structure
Calligraphic contour, dry brush and historical reference make painting a learned visual language.
Palette and light
Restrained colour or pure ink shifts attention toward rhythm, spacing and the expressive edge of a mark.
A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.
