Untitled Picture Album of Twenty-five Watercolor Paintings
19th century
Medium
Orihon, accordion-style; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
11 5/16 × 6 1/2 in. (28.8 × 16.5 cm)
Classification
Illustrated Books
Culture & Period
Japan · Edo period (1615–1868)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Mary and James G. Wallach Foundation Gift, 2013
Accession Number
2013.886
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the serene world of Edo-period Japan with *Untitled Picture Album of Twenty Watercolor Paintings* byiyama Hōen ( 19th century), now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Art department. Created during the Edo period (1615–8), this intimate work reflects the era's flourishing artistic traditions, where painters often celebrated the beauty of everyday nature amid urban prosperity and cultural refinement. Masterfully executed in ink and color on paper, album unfolds in the orihon format—a classic accordion-style binding that invites viewers to gently expand its pages like a bloomi...
About the Artist
Nishiyama Hōen 西山芳園 (Japanese) · 1807 –1867
Japanese, 1807–1867