Orchid Pavilion Gathering; Autumn Harvest Festival

These two screens are a study in contrasts of composition, mood, and narrative content. The screen on the right depicts a poetry gathering at Lanting, the Orchid Pavilion, on the third day of the third lunar month in the year 353 at Huiqi, Chekiang Province, southern China. The screen on the left shows a rustic country scene, the autumn festival after the harvest at the foot of Mount Ohu in Kiangsi Province.

The poetry contest at the Orchard Pavilion was immortalized for future generations of literati, both Chinese and Japanese, by the preface to the poems, which was written by the host of the gathering, Wang Xizhi (ca. 303–ca. 361). Wang, regarded as the greatest calligrapher of China, invited forty-one of his scholarly friends to an outing on the orchid-filled banks of a winding stream. The group composed poetry and drank wine from cups that had been set floating on the stream. Wang's preface to the forty-one poems is a sophisticated discourse on the meaning of life and death, past and present.[1] According to tradition, the original text was the favorite possession of the Tang emperor Taizong and was interred with him when he died, in 649. The many copies that survived insured that the preface would be known and revered in years to come.

To the nanga artists of the Edo period, the gathering at the Orchid Pavilion was the epitome of a literati pastime. Of the many Japanese artists who painted the theme, Ike Taiga (1723–1776) is the most prominent, depicting it repeatedly on scrolls and screens, each time with a similar compositional scheme. A broad, winding stream dips low into the foreground at the lower right, boldly dividing the composition into near and far. Wang and his friends are shown seated inside the pavilion. (The man with a scroll spread before him on the table is most likely Wang himself.) Scholars and servants appear throughout the landscape, along the stream and in the great cavities of the rocks. Two children on the bridge at the left use long poles to try to catch the wine cups as they float on the water.[2]

Taiga may have devised this composition originally for the small ema (votive plaque) at the Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto. His inscription on the ema states that he painted it in 1754, at the request of ten citizens. The plaque is now badly damaged, but the painting can be studied from a preliminary drawing and an early-nineteenth- century woodcut copy.[3]

The Burke screen, dated to about 1763, is the earliest known example in screen format to follow the composition of the ema.[4]
In the painting, verdant leaves heighten the freshness of rose-colored plum and peach blossoms on a day in early spring. The variety of brushstrokes used for the foliage—loops, stubby lines, and dots against the hemp-fiber texture strokes of rock surfaces—produces a vibrant, brocade effect. The screen, with its rich texture and color and complex composition, contrasts sharply with the screen at the left, which is executed with spare restraint.

The subject of Autumn Festival is a popular Chinese poem generally attributed to Wang Jia (b. 851) but sometimes to another Tang poet, Zhang Yan. The poem is inscribed by Taiga on the screen:

At the foot of Mount Ohu, the rice and millet
are fat.
Pigs are in their pens, chickens in their coops;
The door to the house has been left ajar.
The Autumn Festival is over, and in the evening
Mulberry leaves cast long shadows.
To every house tipsy men return, holding
each other up.[5]

The landscape of Autumn Festival is viewed from a farther distance than in the Orchid Pavilion. A mountain peak towers above a village in the center foreground, contrasting sharply with the lake on the right and the low-lying fields and hills beyond. Crisp autumn air permeates the scene. Pale ink dominates, punctuated by touches of dark ink for foliage and patches of red and green, hidden among the trees.

The Autumn Festival was another of Taiga's favorite subjects, but he did not usually include the poem. Like the Orchid Pavilion paintings, the Autumn Festival paintings are compositionally close. No doubt the theme was a popular one, as the poem appealed to many nanga artists.

The two screens are so different in style that scholars question whether they were originally intended as a pair.[6] But Taiga may not have followed any particular formula when he matched two subjects on pairs of screens. He seldom repeated the same combination of themes, and he seems to have been more interested in creating contrasts than in adhering to stylistic or thematic coherence. Indeed, he may have been searching for a way to depart from the traditional formula for paired screens in an attempt to create a new scheme-a spacious scene complemented by a more compressed view.

Taiga is believed to have used as many as 115 seals, perhaps more.[7] Three seals are impressed on these two screens. "Kashō " and "Ike Mumei in" on the Lanting screen, and "Taiga," "Ike Mumei in," and "Gyokkō Kōanri" on the Festival screen. "Kashō" and "Ike Mumei in" are the two seals most frequently used by Taiga. The latter calls for some explanation, as "Mumei" is sometimes read as "Arina."[8] Taiga adopted this name in 1749 at the suggestion of his teacher, Gion Nankai (cat. no. 153). When Taiga met Nankai, he was still using his personal name "Tsutomu." Asked about his artistic name, Taiga replied that he had "no name" (mumei), upon which Nankai suggested that he use "Mumei." Taiga gave a humorous twist to the new name, pronouncing it "Arina" (Have Name).

The seal "Gyokkō Kōanri" comes from a verse by the Tang poet and official Yuan Zhen (779-831) and means "Official in Charge of the Jade Emperor's Incense Burner.[9] Taiga's choice of this title for a seal reflects aspirations typical of sinophile artists of the nanga movement.

The years during which these seals were used can be roughly determined from the paintings on which they are impressed. "Kashō," "Ike Mumei in," and "Gyokkō Kōanri" are found on works dated, respectively, from 1763 to 1771, from 1759 to 1765, and from 1755 to 1766. These are consistent with the date of about 1763 for the Burke screens, arrived at independently through stylistic analysis.

[Miyeko Murase 2000, Bridge of Dreams]

[1] Ch'en Chih-mai 1966, p. 62.
[2] A six-fold screen almost identical to this work is in a private collection and is reproduced in Tōkyū Department Store 1972, p. 20; and Yoshizawa Chu 1986, pp. 33–35.
[3] Yabumoto Kōzō 1974, p. 53·
[4] Tanaka Ichimatsu et al. 1957–59, no. 241.
[5] Translation after Stephen D. Allee. In the commonly used texts of this poem, the word pan, meaning "half," is given for the fourth character from the top on the second line from the right. Taiga, however, gives the word tui, which means "to oppose" or "to confront," suggesting that he may have used a corrupt text.
[6] See, for example, Tanaka Ichimatsu 1917, p. 90.
[7] Suzuki Susumu 1975, pp. 105–6; see also M. Takeuchi 1992, pp. 159–65, where thirty-seven seals are reproduced.
[8] M. Takeuchi 1992, seal no. 16.
[9] Ibid., seal no. 23.

Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation , New York (until 2015; donated to MMA)

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University of California, Berkeley, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley. "Scholar Painters of Japan: The Nanga School," December 21, 1970–February 7, 1971.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," November 7, 1975–January 4, 1976.

Seattle Art Museum. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," March 10–May 1, 1977.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Japanese Art: Selections from the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," June 1–July 17, 1977.

Tokyo National Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," May 21, 1985–June 30, 1985.

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," July 13, 1985–August 11, 1985.

Nagoya City Art Museum. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," August 17, 1985–September 23, 1985.

Atami. MOA Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," September 29, 1985–October 27, 1985.

Hamamatsu City Museum of Art. "Nihon bijutsu meihin ten: nyūyōku bāku korekushon," November 12, 1985–December 1, 1985.

New York. Asia Society. "Art of Japan: Selections from the Burke Collection, pts. I and II," October 2, 1986–February 22, 1987.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paintings of the Nanga School," January 27–May 13, 1990.

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Die Kunst des Alten Japan: Meisterwerke aus der Mary and Jackson Burke Collection," September 16, 1990–November 18, 1990.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seasonal Pleasures in Japanese Art (Part One)," October 12, 1995–April 28, 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Japanese Art from The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 30–June 25, 2000.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Enlightening Pursuits," February 28–August 5, 2001.

Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," July 5, 2005–August 19, 2005.

Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 4, 2005–December 11, 2005.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," January 24, 2006–March 5, 2006.

Miho Museum. "Enduring Legacy of Japanese Art: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," March 15, 2006–June 11, 2006.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Masters of the Brush: Ike Taiga and Tokuyama Gyokuran," April 28, 2007–July 22, 2007.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.

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Murase, Miyeko. Masterpieces of Japanese Screen Painting: the American Collections. New York: G. Braziller, 1990, cat. no. 15.

Guth, Christine. Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City 1615-1868. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1996, figs. 43, 44.

Tsuji Nobuo 辻惟雄, Mary Griggs Burke, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha 日本経済新聞社, and Gifu-ken Bijutsukan 岐阜県美術館. Nyūyōku Bāku korekushon-ten: Nihon no bi sanzennen no kagayaki ニューヨーク・バーク・コレクション展 : 日本の美三千年の輝き(Enduring legacy of Japanese art: The Mary Griggs Burke collection). Exh. cat. [Tokyo]: Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2005, cat. no. 109.

Murase, Miyeko, Il Kim, Shi-yee Liu, Gratia Williams Nakahashi, Stephanie Wada, Soyoung Lee, and David Sensabaugh. Art Through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection. Vol. 1, Japanese Paintings, Printed Works, Calligraphy. [New York]: Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, [2013], p. 262, cat. no. 323.

Carpenter, John T. The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018, pp. 86–88, fig. 25.