Kanrin Picture Album (Kanrin gafu 閑林画譜) : [volume 1]

Okada, Kanrin, 1780-1849 · 1845 · Edo: Hanabusa Tasuke (Daisuke) 英大助 · 14 pictures

Kanrin Picture Album is a Japanese woodblock-printed picture manual, volume 1, made by the painter Okada Kanrin (1780-1849) and published in Edo in 1845 by Hanabusa Tasuke. Its pages show plant and animal studies meant as models for artists and learners. The pictures are ink-line botanical and bird sketches on open, unfilled paper, with sparse branches, leaves, and grasses placed asymmetrically across each two-page spread. A designer could take from them the economy of single-stroke linework and the use of blank space around a few motifs.

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