Pumpkin Vine and Horse Fly

Maker(s)
Artist: Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, ca. 1825-1833
Medium
Ink and color on silk
Dimensions
H x W (image): 35 × 54.4 cm (13 3/4 × 21 7/16 in)
Geography
Japan
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1898.111
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Hanging scroll

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), flower, fly, Japan, ukiyo-e
Provenance

To 1898
Edward S. Hull Jr., New York to 1898 [1]

From 1898 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Edward S. Hull Jr. in 1898 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Kakemono List, L. 171, pg. 38, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Edward S. Hull Jr. was Ernest Francisco Fenollosa’s (1853-1908) lawyer. Hull often acted as an agent, facilitating purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa, as well as purchases of objects consigned to him by Fenollosa's well-known associate, Bunshichi Kobayashi (see correspondence, Hull to Freer, 1898-1900, as well as invoices from E.S. Hull Jr., 1898-1900, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives). See also, Ingrid Larsen, "'Don’t Send Ming or Later Pictures': Charles Lang Freer and the First Major Collection of Chinese Painting in an American Museum," Ars Orientalis vol. 40 (2011), pgs. 15 and 34. See further, Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art, (Washington, DC and New York: Freer Gallery of Art and H. N. Abrams, 1993), pgs. 133-134.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Edward S. Hull Jr. (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

Hokusai painted this small work after he reached the age of sixty. Its composition, brushwork, and color demonstrate perfect technical control. The inclusion of a flying insect resembles the formula that Hokusai adopted in his "Large Flowers" print series in the 1830s. This painting was among the first group of Hokusai works purchased by Charles Lang Freer in 1898. Freer had already developed a taste for the simple compositions and pleasing colors of paintings by artists such as Ogata Korin (1658-1716), who introduced a style of painting from Kyoto to Edo in the early eighteenth century.

Published References
  • Hokusai nikuhitsuga taisei [Compilation of paintings by Hokusai]. Tokyo. no. 141.
  • Jack Hillier. Hokusai Drawings. London. pl. 54.
  • Elisabeth West FitzHugh. A Pigment Census of Ukiyo-e Paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 11 Washington and Ann Arbor, 1979. pp. 27-38.
  • Ann Yonemura, Nagata Seiji, Kobayashi Tadashi, Asano Shugo, Timothy Clark, Naito Masatoshi. Hokusai: Volume Two. Exh. cat. Washington, 2006. cat. 85, p. 33, 76.
  • Ann Yonemura. Hokusai: Volume One. Exh. cat. Washington, 2006. cat. 105, pp. 154-155.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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