Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009641Irises
About the Artwork
The subject of this painting comes from a 10th-century text. It tells of a young nobleman’s journey into the lonely countryside, far from the capital city of Heian-kyō (Kyoto). There he came upon a small stream, the banks of which were covered with blooming irises, on which the artist has chosen to focus our attention. While viewing the beautiful flowers the nobleman composed a poem: I have a beloved wife, Familiar as the skirt of a well-worn robe, And so this distant journeying Fills my heart with grief.
Inscriptions
signed and sealed lower right of the first panel from the right.
Provenance
?-1954: (Howard Hollis and Co., Cleveland, OH, ?-1954, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1954-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1954-present
Exhibition history
Japanese Decorative Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art (August 30-October 15, 1961); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (November 9-December 17, 1961). A World of Flowers. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (organizer) (May 2-June 9, 1963). Rimpa. Japan Society Gallery, New York, NY (organizer) (September 13-November 13, 1971). Rin-pa. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (October 10-December 3, 1972). Japanese Screens from the Museum and Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-May 8, 1977). The Legacy of Japanese Art. Chiba City Museum of Art (organizer) (October 1-November 10, 1996). Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001). Rimpa. The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (August 21-October 3, 2004). Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009). Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014). Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 7-July 8, 2019). The Kōrin School: The Irises and Ogata Kōrin’s Followers. Nezu Museum, Tokyo, Japan (organizer) (April 11-May 10, 2026).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Watanabe Shikō (Japanese, 1683–1755)
- Date
- 1700s
- Medium
- One of a pair of six-panel folding screens, ink and color on gilded paper
- Dimensions
- Painting: 154.4 x 360.4 cm (60 13/16 x 141 7/8 in.); Mounted: 170.7 x 376.7 cm (67 3/16 x 148 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- Gift of The Norweb Foundation
- Accession no.
- 1954.603.2
More by Watanabe Shikō in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009641
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