Geese Over a Beach by Maruyama Okyo 円山応挙 (1733-1795)

Classification

Painting

Department

Smithsonian Collection

Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Credit

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Accession Number

F1898.143

Tags

Charles Lang Freer collectionEdo period (1615 - 1868)JapanJapanese Artautumngooselandscape

About this artwork

In Japanese and Chinese painting and poetry, geese represent autumn. Their annual migrations also symbolize an unsettled existence. This painting was formerly mounted on four sliding doors set in tracks between two rooms. This portrayal of two geese flying out to sea shows a dramatic and expansive realism that comes from the artist's familiarity with techniques that included some methods of depicting perspective and volume, which Okyo learned from studying European art.

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