The Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual : [volume 2] (Japanese reprint)

Wang, Gai, active 1677-1705 · 1753 · Kyoto: Kōnanrō 江南堂; Kōnan shirōuemon 江南四郎右衛門; and Osaka: Onoki Ichibei 大野木市兵衛; Edo: Nishimura Genroku 西村源六 · 15 pictures

This is a Japanese reprint of volume two of the Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual, a Chinese treatise on painting compiled by Wang Gai and issued in 1753 by Kyoto, Osaka and Edo publishers for artists and students. The pages are woodblock-printed double spreads with explanatory Chinese text beside tree studies drawn in fine black line. Designers could take from them the economy of bare branch structure and the way pine and gnarled trunks are built up from simple strokes.

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