Horseback Riding at West Lake by Maruyama Ōkyo 円山応挙

Horseback Riding at West Lake 1793

landscape illustration sketch

toned paper

pen sketch

japan

personal sketchbook

pen work

sketchbook drawing

watercolour bleed

watercolour illustration

sketchbook art

watercolor

"Horseback Riding at West Lake" is a masterful work by the renowned Japanese artist Maruyama Ōkyo, created in 1793. This painting captures the serene beauty of West Lake, a famous scenic spot in Hangzhou, China, with its willow trees and leisurely riders. Ōkyo's meticulous brushwork and use of delicate color create a realistic yet idealized view of the natural world, characteristic of his "Shijō" style, which combined traditional Chinese painting techniques with Japanese aesthetics. The scroll's expansive format and meticulous detail allows viewers to immerse themselves in the tranquility of the landscape.

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minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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This handscroll by the naturalist painter Maruyama Ōkyo depicts figures on horseback along the banks of storied West Lake, near the Chinese city of Hangzhou. At the very end of the scroll, Ōkyo dates his painting to the spring of 1793 and notes that it is modeled after the work of the sixteenth-century Chinese painter Qiu Ying (1494–1552). Although horseback riding at West Lake is not a subject Qiu Ying is known to have painted, the distinct depiction of willow trees here is consistent with works associated with the painter in Japan.