1848

Bamboo and Rock

Japanese, 1783 - 1856

Yamamoto Baiitsu was born and raised in Nagoya, where he studied painting with a local Kano school painter, Yamamoto Rantei. A wealthy merchant, Kamiya Tenyu, became Baiitsu’s patron and allowed him to study and copy original Chinese paintings and books in his collection. After Tenyu’s death in 1802, Baiitsu traveled extensively in Japan, becoming acquainted with literati artists and scholars in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and Kyoto. He was appointed an official painter of the Owari clan in 1833 and became a leading literati artist. His landscapes, birds, and flowers are usually characterized by delicate brushwork, but Baiitsu experimented in many painting styles. This rendering of bamboo and rocks shows his literati mode, balancing fully inked bamboo leaves with dry-brushed jagged rock.