A Hand Painted, Edo Period Copybook Album Done In Watercolor By An Accomplished, Unidentified Maruyama School Artist, After A Watercolor Sketchbook By Maruyama Okyo With Fifteen Portraits And Portraits With Landscape, Most After Folklore Or Legend -

Offering: A hand painted, Edo period copybook album done in watercolor by an accomplished, unidentified Maruyama school artist, after a watercolor sketchbook by Maruyama Okyo with fifteen portraits and portraits with landscape, most after folklore or legend. The Maruyama Okyo watercolor drawings have a further history, as they were the first to be adapted posthumously for woodblock designs. The original Maruyama Okyo sketchbook, from which this funpon album of watercolor drawings was made, was one of two sketchbooks adapted by one of his most famous students, Yamaguchi Soken [1759-1818] who made transfer drawings for the woodblock print designs and wrote an afterword for volume two before his death in 1818. The two volumes were published together by Yoshida Shinbei in Kyoto as, "En'ō gafu" (Picture Album by Old Man Maruyama) in the early spring of Tenpō 8 (1837), 42 years after Maruyama Okyo's death. [Brown, Block Printing and Book Illustration in Japan, p. 96] The fifteen actual size watercolors in the model book after Maruyama Okyo differ from the corresponding woodblock prints of volume one of "En'ō gafu" in many particulars. Of great interest is that details of the compositions often subtly diverge, as the woodblock prints have a less sophisticated symmetry of line and there are many details left out. The color palette of the funpon album is believed to be much closer to the original watercolors, more realistic, sensual and various, the hues richer with greater contrast. High quality handmade mineral pigments were expensive. Because of commercial concerns, print designers nearly always used less color with a smaller range of hues and consistently lighter colors. The funpon album was carefully handled and stored but viewed frequently by school students and artists. There are fifteen different hanko seals with old Chinese characters repeatedly stamped on cover sides and they may have recorded the funpon album's transmission. "If a student wished to use a copybook, he would request it from the pictorial model keeper. Accounts of loans were checked twice a month." [Sato, Modern Japanese Art, p. 285] Date: Undated, but believed done prior to 1818. Condition: Acceptable, sheets with fresh colors and sharp detail with no worming, beverage stains or tears, the integrity of the watercolors unaffected by the substantial wear. Condition Detail: Sheets: some are dusty (covers are slightly shorter in length), some fingering, outer sheets also with substantial top edge creasing and crumpling, interior sheets with bottom edge crinkled and crumpled tips and top corners. Sheets 2-5 with scattered top margin spotting, negligible after Sheet 4 / Portrait on Sheet 8 with light marking in pencil / Covers: Untouched earliest covers with extensive wear, outer paper layer of lower side with loss, lower side with worming. / Binding: Nearly Good, lacks top-hole threading on both sides, but reliable, needs to be handled with care. Size: 264 x 187 mm (10.39 x 7.36 inches). Format: Preserved in the untouched, earliest beige paper wrappers with believed, stamped loan seals. Pagination: Fifteen unnumbered portrait sheets without descriptive text, 2 single page and 13 full sheet, identical in size to the original watercolors by Okyo and the woodblock prints for "En'ō gafu", volume one. Comparison of Copybook Watercolors to the First Issue Woodblock Prints: In my estimation, twelve of the copybook watercolors are superior to the first issue woodblock prints. The artist was not always successful at recreating the spirit resonance of Okyo's brush work (kiin). For your own comparison, please view the high resolution images of the first issue woodblock prints kindly made available online by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use a keyword search with the woodblock title provided above. Portrait 1: A portrait of Fukurokuju, the Japanese god of wisdom and good fortune. Top of head with more detail / Left foot with variation and more detail / Eye orbits with more detail / Skin with true flesh tone / Clothing, as throughout the watercolor suite with realistic hues / Face is more expressive, but beard is superior in the woodblock. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portraits 2: Distant boaters in background done with more detail / New detail around edge of necklace / Cleft above woman's lip isn't present in print / Woman's face longer and she almost seems to be breathing / Her posture not as willowy / Servant no longer idealized, looks worried and preoccupied / Hair handled better / Ume fruit better rendered. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portraits 3: Watercolor with detail not present in print that is important to composition / Some of the color decisions of the woodblock printers are questionable and better resolved in the watercolor. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 4: Watercolor rendering of reverie after an enjoyable meal is superior / Neck of largest pot with more detail. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 5: Many subtly different details / Figures more expressive / Hair better done in watercolor. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 6: Tree branch in sunlight better done in woodblock / Rockface exposed to moisture better in watercolor / Waves more effective in woodblock / Landscape more unified in woodblock / Old man subtly different and more expressive in watercolor / Facial and scalp hair better in watercolor. Woodblock Print is superior. Portrait 7: A highly unusual treatment of women gathering lotus blossoms from a chokibune (river boat) propelled by a woman boatman with a sculling oar (ro), likely on the Kamo river. Scalp hair not handled as well in watercolor / Figures are more organically connected in watercolor and there is the humor and tension of the damaged fan, not present in the woodblock print. Landscape is superior in watercolor with detail not seen in print and with far more effective use of color. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 8: Second treatment of gathering lotus blossoms on a pleasure outing from a chokibune river taxi, likely on the Kamo river, this composition with one woman passenger and a woman boatman. Tufted hair in watercolor becomes a more sophisticated feathered crest in the woodblock / ruminating, bothered expression in watercolor with displaced, curved brows and pouty lips becomes ethereal, dreamy expression in woodblock (reinforced by even brow, small lips and perfect skin) / chokibune with cleaner line and more momentum in the woodblock print / Landscape differences reinforce the different treatments. In the watercolor, the heat of the sun is evident and the landscape is more sensual, such as the giant lotus pads with their detailed vein patterns. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 9: Portrait of Hotei, god of children and good fortune. A star in watercolor, cross rhythms of hands and feet superior, as is contrast of chest hair / A more complex and subtly dynamic composition in watercolor, more evocative of the flesh and more complex in its expression of bemused contentment. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portraits 10: Spray and froth better done in woodblock / Ride posture on fish better done in woodblock / Postures more effective in woodblock / Fish better rendered in watercolor. Woodblock Print is superior. Portrait 11: Landscape with figures and stork is more unified and dynamic in the print / Stork's feet are better done in print / Older figure is better done in watercolor / Dynamic with servant is lacking in watercolor. Woodblock Print is superior. Portrait 12: Go game in progress on rock face, older, more accomplished and relaxed player with next move. Watercolor with falling leaves detail not in woodblock / Hands better rendered in watercolor, etc. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portraits 13: Print treatment of contrasting portraits is excellent but watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 14: Six human figures better done in watercolor / Monkey far more effectively rendered in woodblock. Watercolor from copybook is superior. Portrait 15: A star in watercolor. Watercolor from copybook is far superior. Maruyama Okyo [1733-1795]: one of Japan's greatest painters, founder of the influential Maruyama school, was born in the village of Ano in Kyoto prefecture, second son of a farmer, his given name, Maruyama Iwajiro. Early on, he showed a great talent for drawing but his family sent him to a local Buddhist temple, a novice in training to become a monk. Dissatisfied, he was allowed to leave around the age of twelve and seek work in Kyoto. After a series of jobs, including for a drapery shop, his first opportunity as an artist emerged when he became employed at Owari-ra in Shijo-dori, the Kyoto toy shop owned by Nakajima Kanbei and patronized by the Imperial Court. Impressing with his talent and energy, he was assigned to the painting of faces on dolls, in particular the hina (emperor and empress) dolls the shop was celebrated for making. Around 1749, on Kanbei's recommendation, Iwajiro was admitted as an apprentice to the studio of Ishida Yutei, a master Kano school painter of the Tsuruzawa branch established by Tsuruzawa Tanzan. Intensely curious, he also independently immersed himself in 'Dutch studies', studying Western perspective and anatomy books, and subsequently, the techniques and aesthetics of many different schools of painting. He is believed by scholars to have been most influenced by the Japanese painter, Watanabe Shiko and the great 13th century Chinese painter, Ch'ien Hsüan. Following his apprenticeship, ca. 1759, he returned to work for Nakajima Kanbei as a designer of megane-e (eyeglass pictures) copper engraved by Matsuda Gengen. These were viewed through an imported optical device, a direct viewing peephole box or nozoki bako, either made in the Netherlands or its design copied and made in China, with rear slide to hold the plate in place, translucent paper to admit light on top, and eye hole in front to capture the reflection of a convex lens that created a three dimensional effect through magnification. Subsequently, he was employed by Renchiin, Abbess of Hokyoji Temple, an Imperial Convent of the Rinzai Sect of Zen Buddhism and still the repository of a celebrated antique collection of hina. There he did paintings for the sliding doors of the shoin residential suites. Around 1765, an important enduring friendship was established with Yūjō, Abbot of Enman'in Temple who was related to the Emperor and well-connected at the Imperial court. He became a mentor. From 1766, he began to refer to himself in public as Okyo. Yūjō's friendship with Okyo opened many doors including a commission from Yūjō, for whom he painted the set of three hand scrolls, "Seven Fortunes and Seven Misfortunes" (1768). Ōkyo devoted himself at this period to the making of shasei-ga, careful drawings of flora and fauna from life including insects and birds, as in his notebook, "Shasei zatsurokujō" [ca. 1771] According to his own words, he always had a sketchbook on his person. He became widely admired among artists and the wider public for his idiosyncratic mastery of the brush, including of the tsuke tate long bristle brush for highlighting and shadowing effects. His remarkable nature works painted from life attracted the patronage of the wealthy and influential Mitsui merchant family. By the end of 1772, Okyo decided to leave Kyoto for further study. In 1774, he returned and began to create unprecedented, large format, naturalist works that demonstrated his deep rooted knowledge of nature subjects. Once he became accepted as a great master, he established a school to teach his unique fusion of techniques and expressive aesthetic. He proved an immensely influential teacher, mentoring many artists, among them, future greats, Yamaguchi Soken, Nagasawa Rosetsu and Matsumura Goshun. The popularity of Okyo as an artist was unprecedented. Legend has it that his works were in such demand that a long rank of carriages with prospective clients formed daily in front of his residence. [Mori Senzō from an anecdote by Minawa Kien, "Maruyama Okyo den toki", Bijutsu kenkyu 36, 1934, pp. 584–93.] The Shogun's chief minister, Matsudaira Sadanobu aided Okyo in gaining imperial painting commissions. At the inauguration of the Tenmei era with Emperor Kōkaku, he received an enthronement commission for a screen painting and after the great fire of Tenmei 8 (1788) destroyed most of Kyoto, including the Imperial Palace and his studio, he received many refurbishment commissions and worked in the rebuilt Imperial Palace to 1790. Okyo established another friendship with the Confucian literati scholar and painter, Minagawa Kien [1734-1807] who contributed verse that accompanied some his late works. Okyo worked on a major commission to paint sliding doors for Daijoji temple from 1787 to 1795, and in 1794, he completed a set of ninety screens for the Kotohiragu Shinto shrine on Shikoku Island. Maruyama Okyo lives on through his art and remains among the most revered of painters. His greatest works are among the most prized in museums worldwide. Reference: Beerens, Friends, Acquaintances, Pupils and Patrons: Japanese intellectual life in the late eighteenth century / Carpenter and Oka, The Poetry of Nature: Edo Painting from the Fishbein Bender Collection, chapter by Oka, Maruyama-Shijo: Poetic Symbolism in Naturalistic Painting, p. 143-149 / Jordan and Weston, editors, Copying the Master and Stealing his Secrets / Osaka Museum of Art, Maruyama Okyo Shaseiga Sōsaku e no Chōsen / Rathbun and Sasaki, Okyo and the Maruyama-Shijo School of Japanese Painting, Saint Louis Art Museum catalog / Screech Timon, The Shogun's Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States 1760-1829 / Xie He, Gu Huapin Lu (A Record of Noted Painters of Former Times), Six Principles of Painting. Additional Images: by request.