Dried Fish and Mice | Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤芦雪 | 1754-1799

The most prominent painter of his time, Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-1795), had many excellent students who carried on his art. The entire 19th century still drew on his great achievements as a realist and as a painter with a tendency towards idealization. However, such genius also provokes counter-reactions. We speak of three eccentrics of that time - Soga Shōhaku, Itō Jakuchū, and Nagasawa Rosetsu, each of whom created a different counter-world. Rosetsu - as a direct student of Ōkyo - could not so easily give in to his urge to pursue his own, at times grotesque, paths. Many of his paintings reveal his origins in the Maruyama school. But when he then, in individual paintings, fully reflected on himself, a great, independent expressive power was unleashed.

This is clearly the case with this enormous, dried fish, hung by its tail. The motif also exists by Ōkyo (see below). But here, Rosetsu's expressive potential can be clearly assessed: Ōkyo depicts the fish lying down (at rest, i.e., undramatically). His brushwork, while free for his standards, is at times almost sketchily unrestrained. However, Rosetsu surpasses his teacher with a wild, untamed stroke. The fish head shows a terribly distorted expression, which the suave Ōkyo never sought to achieve.

Typical of Rosetsu is the wit of counterpointing the horror in the fish's face with a charmingly nibbling, pink-eared mouse and a contemplative mouse that we only see from behind – this too is an artistic idea that we never find in his master Ōkyo.