Waaierblad met een dichteres op een berg 1800 - 1900

Curator: Here we have an early fan painting dating from the 19th century, a watercolour on paper by Suzuki Kiitsu, titled 'Waaierblad met een dichteres op een berg’ or "Fan leaf with a poet on a mountain." Editor: It's like a haiku, a fleeting moment captured. The artist sits alone in that stark landscape, her pale robes contrasting against the dark, almost violently brushed rocks. She is small. Vulnerable even? Curator: The image certainly evokes themes common in ukiyo-e prints of the time: figures placed within, but also somewhat overpowered by, their natural surroundings. There's also an emphasis on a certain stylized, idealized figure, detached from daily life, experiencing instead the aesthetic heights of natural beauty. Editor: I suppose! For me, though, the immediate feeling isn't some high-minded philosophical connection with nature. There's a quiet drama, almost like a stage set. What is she contemplating? What poems stir in that solitary mind? Is it lonely at the top, in some painterly way? Curator: In its function as a fan painting, perhaps its most public role, such an image may have connoted sophistication, refined taste. Note also how Kiitsu creates space around the figure – very deliberate. It encourages introspection and projects certain status anxieties through artistic consumption. Editor: Mmm, I’m drawn to the starkness and how suggestive the watercolor wash is. Kiitsu isn't providing answers. We feel the raw materials and the quick almost hasty application as the medium drips into a suggestion of cliff, of atmosphere. The fan as object allows this gesture in watercolour to happen fast, in an uncontrolled almost frantic but thoughtful pace. Curator: I agree that Kiitsu is evocative. Think also how this very private moment captured, perhaps even hinting at isolation, gains its force and significance through public exhibition. Editor: And as that fan would ripple, the figure shifts, poetry alters the mountain, all change together. What a lovely dance of images! Thank you.