Kan'yōsai Picture Album (Kan'yōsai gafu 寒葉斎画譜) : [volume 4]

Takebe, Ayatari, 1719-1774 · 1762 · Edo: Suharaya Ichibei 須原屋市兵衛 · 10 pictures

A volume from the Kan'yōsai Picture Album, a Japanese woodblock printed album by Takebe Ayatari, published in Edo in 1762 by Suharaya Ichibei for a general readership of painters and artisans. The pictures are paired double-page spreads of birds in flight over rivers, plum or pine branches, and rocky banks, drawn in clean black outlines on pale paper with light tonal washes. A designer could take from them the economy of the line, the way flocks are arranged in loose diagonal groups, and the use of empty space to suggest sky and water.

Takebe, Ayatari, 1719-1774

Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art · No known copyright restrictions · More from this library