Letter Enclosing Flowers
Okada Hankō devoted himself to Confucian studies and painting in the style of Chinese Ming and Qing masters, as had his father, Okada Beisanjin (1744–1820). This letter to a friend, written when the artist was forty-nine, offers a gift of flowers arranged in a Chinese style, a practice cultivated by Japanese literati. The amusing twist: the gift was not actual flowers but flower sketches, executed in a charmingly free manner that reflects the spontaneous, personal quality espoused by Nanga (literati) painters in emulation of Chinese scholar-artists.
Artwork Details
- 岡田半江筆 花卉図巻
- Title: Letter Enclosing Flowers
- Artist: Okada Hankō (Japanese, 1782–1846)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: 1831
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Handscroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions: 6 3/4 in. × 12 ft. 7 5/16 in. (17.2 × 384.3 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
- Object Number: 1975.268.105
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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Okada Hankō
1833
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