A JAPANESE TWO-FOLD PAPER SCREEN

A JAPANESE TWO-FOLD PAPER SCREEN, BYOBU

MEIJI 1868-1912

Painted in ink on a silver ground with bamboo growing behind a rock, the right-hand panel with four lines of calligraphy reading 'The bamboo is upright and impartial like a righteous man. 10th Month of the beautiful moon in the Imperial Calendar year of 2555 (corresponding to 1895). Painted at the Studio of the Five Immortals', and signed Chokunyu, aged 82, with three red seals for Bosai, Ta-chi no in and Kozetsu shi, 159cm x 162cm.

Tanomura Chokunyu (1814-1907) was a famous painter, calligrapher and poet specialising in nanga, a style of painting which imitated Chinese aesthetics and which was particularly admired by Edo period literati. Chokunyu lived in Kyoto and became the pupil of Tanomura Chikuden (1777-1835), who encouraged him to copy late Chinese paintings. He later became director of the Kyoto Municipal School of Fine Arts and founded the Japan Nanga Society.