snow pine | Mori Kansai 森寛斉 | 1814-1894

Mori Kansai is the last significant scion of the Mori family of painters, whose lineage dates back to the 18th century and, through adoptions, produced a dynasty of great artists. Kansai was perhaps the most intellectually accomplished of them all. Although he came from a samurai family, he was politically active in the fight for the emperor's rights ( the Sonnō Jōi movement), which brought him into conflict with the shogunate government.

He was a successful teacher and opened an institution in Kyoto that promoted the tradition of the Shijō school. Stylistically, this school traces its origins back to the 18th-century painting genius, Maruyama Ōkyō (1733-1795), whose realistic approach brought about a turning point in Japanese art history.

Kansai's winter scene with a snow-capped pine tree is directly related to Ōkyō, who painted many enchanting snow-capped pines. What is so captivating about Ōkyō's work is not only the realistic accuracy, but also the simultaneous poetic rendering of the depicted subject.

This painting isn't just about the virtuoso rendering of a snow-covered pine tree—with all the subtleties of needles and twigs peeking out from beneath the snow—but about the two figures on the bridge, trudging through the snow. It's hard to say whether the cow is exhausted by its snowy coat, but the farmer, whose straw hat and cloak are covered in snow, appears weary with his hunched back. Now, it is Kansai's genius to express compassion through the form of the snow-covered pine. It's as if the tall, gnarled tree and its drooping branches are looking after the two figures, as if they are even inquiring about their well-being. They quite obviously form a canopy, acting as a protector of the two suffering beings. The two move slowly on a bridge that begins somewhere and disappears into the snowy mist. Even such a detail is melancholic winter poetry.