Japanese Works of Art - 16 Nov 2023

741

KANO DOSHUN FUKUNOBU (D.1723)

£1,500 - £2,000 £1,764

KANO DOSHUN FUKUNOBU (D.1723)
VIEW OF LAKE BIWA
EDO PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY

A Japanese six-fold miniature byobu screen, in ink, colour and gold leaf on paper, decorated with an extensive view of Lake Biwa in the Omi Province, with many figures engaged in daily pursuits, some riding horses and others on small boats; with a temple on stilts on the right, and Mount Fuji towering in the distance; signed lower right corner Doshun hitsu (Painted by Doshun) and with a gourd-shaped red seal mark reading Shosei; mounted with a silk frame; the reverse with a paper label reading 'Loan 293', 49cm x 119.5cm; together with a purpose-built cardboard box from the Museum of Applied Arts and Science to house the screen. (2)

Provenance: from the collection of Lt Col. William Albert Harrison (1867-1947), and thence by descent. On loan from 1923-2023 to the Museum of Applied Arts and Science, Sydney, Australia.

Harrison was born in Calcutta, India, and attended the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich. He served in the Chin-Lushai Expeditionary Force (1889-1890), the China Expeditionary Force (1900, Boxer Rebellion) and World War I (1914-1918). He retired from the army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1919, emigrating to Australia in 1923 and settling in the Sydney suburb of Chatswood where he died on the 8 October 1948. The screen was acquired by Harrison whilst serving in China in 1900 and was loaned to the Sydney Technological Museum (later the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences) very soon after his arrival in Australia in 1923. In 2023, on the expiry date of the full loan, the museum traced Harrison's surviving descendant in the UK and the screen was subsequently returned to the family.

Doshun (also known as Shuseisai) studied under master Kano Masunobu (Toun, 1625-94). Together with other artists including Kano Tsunenobu (1636?1713), he painted inner walls of the old Imperial Palace in Kyoto. He is also known to have produced screens with other painters such as Kano Chikanobu (1636-1713), as tributes to the Korean King of the Joseon Dynasty.

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