' Rooster, Hen and Hydrangeas '
Edo Shogun period (Japan)
18th century
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Jakuchu’s painting style elevated the humble barnyard chicken to the glory.
This scroll is a masterpiece of Jakuchu’s particular specialty.
Here the artist has taken his powerful observation of nature and combined it with a fervent imagination to create a phantasmagorical world.
The minutely intricate techniques used in this painting give this otherwise otherworldly
image a strangely vital sense of life.
Jakuchu created this painting in his early 40s, when he had left his family business and
dedicated himself to full-time painting.
This work has been handed down at Higashi Honganji Temple, Kyoto.
Etsuko and Joe Price's collection of Japanese paintings of the Edo period.
