Details
Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889)
Two crows on a branch above Asakusa at dawn
Hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, painted 1883, signed Joku Nyudo Kyosai zu and sealed Bankoku tobu [flying over many lands]
99.5 x 34.9cm. (excluding mount)
Provenance
Josiah Conder
Purchased by the present owner at auction, V. Winkel and Magnussen, Copenhagen, 1942
Literature
Josiah Conder, Paintings and Studies by Kawanabe Kyosai: An Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Studies and Sketches, by the Above Artist, with Explanatory Notes on the Principles, Materials and Technique, of Japanese Painting, (Tokyo, 1911), no.51, pl.XII

Winkel and Magnussen, Copenhagen, Doktor Josiah Conder's Samling Af Japansk Kunst, Auction catalogue, 1st-3rd June 1942, Lot 149, p.44, illustrated p.35

Timothy Clark, Demon of Painting: The Art of Kawanabe Kyosai, (British Museum Press, 1993), p.149 - the painting is mentioned in the text for no.102, and is described as a "wonderful hanging scroll of two crows".

Lot Essay

Kyosai became particularly renowned as a painter of crows, with many hanging scrolls and prints on the subject. Here, two crows perch on a branch high above the temple and trees of Asakusa, one squawking angrily to the left. Conder thought especially highly of this painting, commenting:

"This is one of Kyosai's best paintings of crows. The forms of the birds are most powerfully dashed in with black ink, the half-tones washed with a lighter ink, and the beaks, eyes and claws sharply outlined with a fine brush. The tree branches and foliage, in the upper part of the picture, are boldly drawn in different shades of ink; and, at the bottom of the painting, a distant view of the temple and trees of Asakusa is shown, softly washed in, with streaks of mist out of which appears the large red orb of the rising sun. The picture is a beautiful example of chiaroscuro obtained by ink shades of different degrees of intensity...."
Josiah Conder, 1911, p.106

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