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Lot Essay
A dancer performs for a group of elegant picnickers seated in a circle beneath flowering cherry trees. Folding screens demarcate their space and they are separated from their servants by a cloth curtain. There is a second group of merrymakers on the riverbank, oblivious of the nearby fishermen.
The oversize trees and the use of folding screens in an outdoor setting are characteristics of early genre painting; a date in the 1630s is suggested for this screen. For a discussion of the kabuku aesthetic in the art of the Kan'ei era (1624-44) see John Carpenter, "'Twisted' Poses: The Kabuku Aesthetic in Early Edo Genre Painting" in Nicole Rousmaniere, ed., Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan, 15th-19th Centuries, exh. cat. (New York: The Japan Society and Harry N. Abrams, 2002), pp. 42-49.
The oversize trees and the use of folding screens in an outdoor setting are characteristics of early genre painting; a date in the 1630s is suggested for this screen. For a discussion of the kabuku aesthetic in the art of the Kan'ei era (1624-44) see John Carpenter, "'Twisted' Poses: The Kabuku Aesthetic in Early Edo Genre Painting" in Nicole Rousmaniere, ed., Kazari: Decoration and Display in Japan, 15th-19th Centuries, exh. cat. (New York: The Japan Society and Harry N. Abrams, 2002), pp. 42-49.