Four Gentlemen c. mid 19th century

ink-on-paper

amateur sketch

light pencil work

quirky sketch

incomplete sketchy

japan

ink-on-paper

ink drawing experimentation

watercolour illustration

quick sketch

sketchbook art

fantasy sketch

watercolor

This Japanese hanging scroll, created by Nakabayashi Chikutō in the mid-19th century, exemplifies the understated elegance of the *suibokuga* ink painting style. Executed in black ink on a pale paper ground, the work features a delicate rendering of orchids, their long, graceful stems and delicate petals rendered with precise brushstrokes. The simplicity of the composition and the nuanced use of ink to convey depth and texture highlight the beauty of the natural world and the artist's technical mastery.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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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.