Rocks and Stream c. mid 19th century

Yokoyama Seiki made this painting, Rocks and Stream, with ink on paper. The flowing ink creates a scene that almost dissolves into abstraction. This wasn’t just a free-for-all, though; Seiki would have been highly trained in the proper handling of the brush, the preparation of the ink, and the sizing of the paper. It's also worth noting that a work like this would have been created for a highly literate and wealthy audience, for whom this kind of painting would have had deep cultural resonance. Such literati painting, as it’s called, was valued for its apparent spontaneity, but that belied the labor and materials involved. So while this work might seem a world away from our own experience, it nonetheless reflects a particular moment in the history of production and consumption.