1764

Summer Landscape

Japanese, 1728 - 1784

Tokuyama Gyokuran was famous as a painter and a poet during her lifetime, but is perhaps best known today as the wife of the legendary artist Ike Taiga (1723-1776). Gyokuran learned painting from Taiga, and his influence can be seen most clearly in her landscapes. For this view, Gyokuran used a wonderful combination of dry brush and wet brush techniques, particularly in rendering the rocks, mountains, and trees. This work is significant in that it is the only one that Gyokuran signed with a specific date: the eighth month of 1770.