A Hanging Scroll by Imperial Court Artist Taki Katei (1830 - 1901)
- Artist:
- Taki Katei (1830 - 1901)
- Era:
- —
- Price:
- $1,350
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This Meiji-period hanging scroll has that lovely quiet confidence you see in literati-style kachōga (seasonal nature motifs) of the era: elegant, unforced, and more interested in cultivated atmosphere than sheer display. The composition centers on two birds perched among blossoming plum branches, with bamboo rising below — a classic seasonal pairing loaded with connotations of resilience, refinement, and renewal. Especially appealing is the way the dark brocade mounting frames the painting beautifully and heightens the restrained monochrome lyricism of the image. Painted by one of the Imperial Court Artists of Meiji, this one-of-kind artwork is not only visually captivating but also represents a slice of history.
Taki Katei (1830–1901) was an important Japanese Nanga painter active from the late Edo period into the Meiji era. Born in Edo (present-day Tokyo), he showed artistic promise early and later traveled to Nagasaki, where he studied under Hidaka Tetsuō and encountered Chinese painters and literati culture, experiences that helped shape his refined Southern School style. He also associated with visiting Qing Chinese artists, an influence that deepened the cosmopolitan and scholarly character of his work.
Katei served the Tokugawa shogunate for a time and traveled widely throughout Japan, developing a reputation for accomplished landscapes, bird-and-flower paintings, and literati subjects. In the Meiji period he emerged as one of the most respected painters of his generation, exhibiting at major international expositions including Vienna, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and receiving repeated honors at Japan’s Domestic Industrial Expositions. In 1893 he was appointed an Imperial Household Artist (Teishitsu Gigeiin), one of the highest distinctions available to an artist in modern Japan. Today works by Taki are held in collections around the world including the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the Imperial Collections, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art to name a few.
In fine antique condition, this piece is 21 inches wide (53cm) and 81 inches tall (205cm). Furnished with its own original wood box the poem on the scroll can roughly be translated as: Before the wind the blossoms come, light with frost and snow.The shadow of the branch has not yet touched the bridge, beneath the moon. Birds’ cries echo from the mountain temple — in such quiet moments, my heart is at ease. (1885 (Meiji 18)
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