Fish and Plants

Ikeda Keisen, 1908

Download1686 × 848 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Ikeda Keisen (Japanese, 1863–1932)
Medium: Single six-panel screen; ink, color, and gold on silk
Size: 137 × 287 cm (53 15/16 × 113 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Creating these screens was a deeply personal exercise for Ikeda Keisen, who modeled this work on sketches made by his father. He elevated those small-scale images into the subjects of an expansive screen—the most formal kind of finished painting—with a dramatic gold-dust background. The six panels collectively represent an abundant display of more 30 kinds of fish and more than 80 varieties of plant life. These elements are painted with meticulous detail but also tempered with a sense of humor seen, for instance, in the whimsical depictions of many of the fish.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.