Landscape, boat trip | Tani Bunchō 谷文晁 | 1763-1840

Tani Bunchō was an outstanding man in many respects in the early 19th century. He mastered many styles (which was considered a sign of professionalism in Japan) and must have been a charismatic personality - in the biographies of quite a few well-known painters we read that Tani Bunchō showed them the way. Thanks to him, they are said to have found their true calling in art. 

But as is the case with such influential and great talents, their production is immense. Such painters worked day after day, from morning to night. The result was an oeuvre with pictures of the finest realistic detail, of overwhelmingly colorful compositions and of pictures of ecstatic sketchiness.

This ink painting is fascinating due to its spontaneity and the masterful momentum that results from it. The energy of a raging white water is reflected in the dramatic movement of a rock at the bottom of the picture as well as in the expressively twisting branches under which the boat passes. The associative transfer of such an idea of impetuous water to the immediate surroundings reveals the genius impetus of Tani Bunchō.

The picture has probably been remounted recently – the blue of the silk damask fabric is just as brilliant as the strips above and below the picture (ichimonji) made of gold brocade.