Nakabayashi ChikutôJapanese, 1776–1853
Four Gentlemen
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemum, and plum (ran, take, kiku, and ume) are the ‘four gentlemen’ (shikunshi) revered by East Asian literati. They have been a popular subject among Chinese scholar painters since the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and nanga artists of eighteenth and nineteenth century Japan, where their differing forms presented artists with a set of technical skills to master. Each plant is associated with a season (orchids with spring, bamboo with summer, chrysanthemum with autumn, and plum with winter) and a range of qualities that resonated with Confucian and Zen ideals. The orchid is associated with purity, loyalty, incorruptibility, and modesty and its long, tapered leaves and fine petals of the plant make it ideally suited to the play of ink and brush.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2013.29.670
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — public domain
