Festivals of the Twelve Months

Object Details

Artist

Miyagawa Choshun 宮川長春 (1683-1753)

Label

Acknowledged as the most important ukiyo-e painter of the early eighteenth century, Choshun celebrates the life of pleasure seeking. His paintings emphasize the elegant coiffure and tailoring of the courtesans and their patrons who inhabit ukiyo, "the floating world," as the pleasure quarters were known. In lieu of a concrete narrative, idealized seasonal settings provide the chronological framework for this painting, which is unrolled to show the autumn cycle.

Unlike many artists who portrayed life in the demimonde, the skilled colorist Choshun was known exclusively as a painter, not a print designer. His figural style is a distinctive blend of Hishikawa Moronobu's (circa 1618-1694) pleasantly rounded burghers and the fulsome, curvilinear beauties of Kaigetsudo Ando (active circa 1700-14). He stands at the head of an important lineage of painters that spawned Katsukawa Shunsho (1726?-1792), who dominated the production of actor prints and paintings in the late eighteenth century, and his disciple, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), the eclectic nineteenth-century master.

Collection

Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Exhibition History

The Arts of Japan (July 14, 2012 to January 13, 2013)

Seasons: Arts of Japan (February 5, 2011 to January 13, 2013)

Games, Contests and Artful Play in Japan (March 19 to October 23, 2005)

Life and Leisure: Everyday Life in Japanese Art (August 14, 2004 to February 20, 2005)

Telling Tales in Japanese Art (November 23, 1996 to August 14, 1997)

Japanese Ukiyo-e Painting (May 2, 1973 to July 1, 1974)

Japanese Art, Galleries 3, 4, and 5 (January 1, 1963 to September 16, 1970)

Ukiyo-e Exhibition (August 7, 1961 to January 1, 1963)

Genroku no bijutsuten (Exhibition of Japanese art of the Genroku era) (1953)

Credit Line

Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

1682-1752

Period

Edo period

Accession Number

F1959.12

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Painting

Medium

Ink, color, gold, and silver on paper

Dimensions

H x W (overall): 31.5 x 1488.9 cm (12 3/8 x 586 3/16 in)

Origin

Japan

Related Online Resources

Google Cultural Institute

See more items in

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Topic

Edo period (1615 - 1868)

new year

celebration

Japan

ukiyo-e

makimono

Japanese Art

Record ID

fsg_F1959.12

Metadata Usage (text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye32dac4fe0-3a2f-4722-98b1-b61d78e236ec