Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795)


Yang GuifeiEdo period (1615-1868), dated 1794Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, depicting the Chinese beauty seated at a red-lacquer table by blossoming peonies and a willow, her pale skin set off against her luxuriously decorated robes, her hair gathered up on top of her head under a phoenix crown, the fan in her left decorated with a landscape and sailing vessel, dated Kinoe-tora chuto utsusu (Drawn in midwinter 1794), signed Okyo and sealed Okyo no inWith a wood tomobako storage box inscribed on the inside of the lid Okyo hitsu shinseki soinai, (Genuine work by Okyo), dated Mizunoe-tatsu shoto (early winter, 1832), signed Seishukan Oritsu sho and sealed Oritsu, and with additional attestation dated and signed Maruyama Oshin tei, and sealed Oshin no in 53 1/4 x 27 3/8in (135.3 x 69.5cm)
|Provenance:Acquired in the 1960s and thence by descent to the present ownerOkyo was known to have produced several paintings of Chinese beauties throughout his lifetime. According to Timothy Clark, there developed in the mid-18th century in Kyoto, a taste for paintings of classical Chinese beauties. Okyo and his followers capitalized on this receptive atmosphere and became well known for their Chinese beauty paintings, often of similar composition. For another example of a portrait of Yang Guifei by Okyo, see Hyogo Kenritsu Hakubutsukan, Maruyama Okyo ten (Special Exhibition: Maruyama Okyo), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, 1995, no. 31, and reproduced in Timothy Clark, "Japanese Paintings of Chinese Beauties in the Late Edo Period" in Miyako Murase and Judith G. Smith, eds., The Arts of Japan: An International Symposium, Metropolitan Museum of New York, 2000, fig. 3, p. 226.The beauty Yang Guifei (719-756) was the favorite consort of the Tang dynasty Emperor Xuangong (r. 712-756). His infatuation with her and his subsequent neglect of his official duties were said to have led to the downfall of his court in 755.Maruyama Oshin (1790-1783) and Maruyama Oritsu (1817-1875) were both grandsons of and painters in the style Okyo, known for authenticating their grandfather's work.