Tree Peonies and Chinese Poem on Peonies
Matsumura Keibun carefully brushed these peonies to impart subtle changes of color to each petal and leaf, conveying three-dimensionality. Keibun was the half brother and pupil of Matsumura Goshun (1752–1811), who founded the Shijō school of painting in Kyoto. A quatrain of Chinese verse, composed and fluently brushed in cursive and semicursive scripts by the celebrated Confucian scholar Rai San’yō, praises the peonies:
洛水春風常掩關 不從姚魏酔雕欄
秋燈半壁高齋夜 却白霜縑看牡丹
As spring breezes reach the capital’s river,
my gate remains shut,
and I do not become drunk and lean on balustrades
to admire peonies of the houses of Yao and Wei.
Rather, on this autumn night,
when a lamp lights up half of my study,
I prefer to gaze quietly upon
these painted peonies on the frost-white silk.
—Trans. Tim T. Zhang
洛水春風常掩關 不從姚魏酔雕欄
秋燈半壁高齋夜 却白霜縑看牡丹
As spring breezes reach the capital’s river,
my gate remains shut,
and I do not become drunk and lean on balustrades
to admire peonies of the houses of Yao and Wei.
Rather, on this autumn night,
when a lamp lights up half of my study,
I prefer to gaze quietly upon
these painted peonies on the frost-white silk.
—Trans. Tim T. Zhang
Artwork Details
- 松村景文筆 牡丹図・頼山陽筆 七言絶句
- Title: Tree Peonies and Chinese Poem on Peonies
- Artist: Painting by Matsumura Keibun (Japanese, 1779–1843)
- Artist: Inscription by Rai San’yō (Japanese, 1780–1832)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: ca. 1830s
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Pair of hanging scrolls; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Image (each): 55 × 22 3/8 in. (139.7 × 56.8 cm)
Overall with mounting (each): 87 1/2 × 27 5/16 in. (222.3 × 69.4 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, 2022
- Object Number: 2022.432.22a, b
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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