Four-fold Screen with Snow Scene

Location: Japan

Materials: silk painted in ink, gofun [powdered calcified shell], and embroidered; laquered wood frames, brocade borders, silk hinges

Dimensions: each panel 171 x 72 cm

Accession Number: MISC 56

Other Notes:

While most early twentieth-century Kyoto textiles for the overseas market seem to have been based on Western or Japanese painted originals, this screen goes one step further and actually combines traditional brushwork with embroidery. The painted snow scene is enhanced by the inclusion of a number of embroidered crows, the dark sheen of the silk perfectly imitating the birds’ plumage.

Bibliography:

J. Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, London 2002, cat. 294, pp. 400–1.