Japanese Flower Painting by 18C Master Painter Watanabe Shiko 渡邊始興 (A.D. 1683－1755)
Size About 20”x 80"
Shiko 始興 (A.D. 1683－1755)
N. Watanabe Shiko 渡邊始興 F.F. Motome 求馬 S. Studied Kanno school when young, later followed Korin. L. & C. Lived in Kyoto. Served Lord Konoye. Studied under Korin 光琳 (1663－1743) and was influenced by Naonobu. Made suiboku-paintings in light colour. Okyo 應舉 (1733－1796) praised his works thirty years after his dealth. Watanabe Shiko holds an important place in the development of painting in 18th century Japan. In reshaping the pictorial conventions of the past, he emphasized visual reality, which became one of the dominant trends in Japanese art.
Watanabe Shiko (A.D. 1683－1755)
Japanese painter. He was apparently a masterless samurai (ronin) who entered the service of the aristocratic Konoe family in Kyoto in 1709. Some of his early paintings reflect his training in the academic style of the KANO SCHOOL, as seen in two sets of sliding doors ( fusuma), one set depicting pine trees, the other flowers and grasses, in Konbuin in Nara. He is best known as one of the leading exponents of the decorative Rinpa style practised by Ogata Korin . Later works only show Kano influence in landscape. Although some of Shiko's works clearly derive from earlier Korin compositions, he was never a slavish imitator. His Kakitsubata ('Irises'; pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and colours over gold leaf on paper; Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.) is modelled after Korin's treatment of the same theme (Tokyo, Nezu A. Mus.). Unlike Korin, who depicted the irises in their entirety, clustering many of them along the bottoms of the screens, Shiko dispersed them more loosely across the surface, with their tops emerging from a low-lying golden mist.
渡邊始興 (A.D. 1683－1755)
25歲起為 [近衛家凞] 家臣。起初學習狩野流派畫，後又師從尾形光琳 (1663－1743)， 學習裝飾畫風。兩者畫法都採納作畫。他一方面致力摹寫古畫卷，作品有『模本春日
現驗記繪』20卷（京都、陽明文庫）等，另一方面又致力寫生，例如『鳥類真寫圖卷』（東京、個人收藏）等。他的寫生畫法對後來的圓山應舉 (1733－1796) 有相當影響。一般評論認為他略欠獨創性、京都畫壇認為他在光琳與應舉之中間佔有重要的地位。他的代表作品有大覺寺『正宸殿板繪』、立本寺『十六羅漢圖』壁畫（1746）、奈良的興福院隔扇畫、峰定寺『板繪著色鷲鷹圖』、『燕子花圖』屏風（Cleveland 美術館）等。
Click Here to See Other Japanese Paintings
Click Here to See Other Paintings
Click Here to Go Back to Homepage