Cleveland Museum of Art

Flowers and Trees of the Four Seasons

Watanabe Shikō

Date: early to mid-1700s
Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, silver, and gilding on paper
Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Department: Japanese Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

The painter Watanabe Shikō had a special interest in scientific realism, based on interactions with his patron Konoe Iehiro. Shikō combined his attention to accurate depiction of plants with strong ink outlines and decorative elements like gold and silver, arriving at an innovative style that influenced many of his peers in the city of Kyoto. One plant in these screens, tumeric, or ukon in Japanese, is found in Okinawa.

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