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Pine trees, water and clouds
17th century
- Medium
- Color and gold on paper
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- H x W: 174 x 73.2 cm (68 1/2 x 28 13/16 in)
- Culture
- Japanese
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Japanese painters often depict the verdant landscapes of their native land in rich, opaque colors. The paintings on the paper surfaces of these sliding-door panels once adorned a room in an elite residence, providing an illusion of a view toward a scenic landscape of a pine grove growing along a shoreline. For large-scale paintings like these, gold leaf depicts clouds, mist, and hills. In their original architectural settings, the gold created subtle, transient reflections.
