- Provenance
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To 1903
Charles Gillot (1853-1903), Paris, to 1903 [1]From 1904 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from the sale of the Charles Gillot Collection, Durand-Ruel Gallery, Paris, through Yamanaka Sadajiro (of Yamanaka & Company), in 1904 [2]From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]Notes:
[1] See S.I. 11, Original Miscellaneous List, pg. 17, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
[2] After his death in 1903, a sale of Asian art belonging to French artist Charles Gillot took place in February 1904 at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris. Yamanaka Sadajiro (of Yamanaka and Co.) attended the sale and annotated the sales catalogue (which is now in the Freer and Sackler Library) on Charles Lang Freer's behalf (see Curatorial Remark 6, Louise Cort, July 11, 2001, in the object record). Also, 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)
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Charles Gillot (C.L. Freer source) 1853-1903
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
- Label
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Artists of the Rimpa school, named in the late nineteenth century after the painter, textile, and lacquer designer Ogata Korin (1658-1716), are credited with innovative designs for objects, including lacquerware, a craft that demands excellent technical knowledge. In the early seventeenth century, the calligrapher Hon'ami Koetsu (1559-1637) participated in lacquer design. In addition to the traditional gold and silver that had been used in Japanese lacquer decoration since the eighth century, Koetsu is thought to have encouraged the use of new materials, such as sheet lead worked to a textured rather than a polished surface. Korin's lacquer designs carried on the tradition of heavy mother-of-pearl and metal inlays combined with traditional maki-e (sprinkled gold and silver).
This box contains a spurious signature of Korin, but it lacks the fine execution associated with his best designs. It does, however, reflect the importance of Korin's style throughout the nineteenth century, when it was disseminated as much through woodblock-printed books as through direct transmission of his artistic style. The scene comes from the eleventh-century court classic Tales of Ise, in which a courtier rides a horse over a hill. Most of the gold used to depict the hill has rubbed away.
- Published References
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- Ann Yonemura. Japanese Lacquer. Washington, 1979. cat. 22, p. 46.
- Collection Area(s)
- Japanese Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
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