Landscape with Pavilion

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Artist: Sesson Shukei (Japanese, 1504–1589)
Medium: Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
Size: 15 11/16 × 20 1/8 in. (39.85 × 51.12 cm) (image)
Museum: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rights: Public Domain Mark

At lower right, a Chinese gentleman riding a donkey and a young attendant on foot head uphill toward a cluster of luxurious buildings framed by pine and willow trees. A friend awaits them in a lakeside pavilion. Standing at the parapet, he gazes out over an expanse of mist, water, and mountain peaks—all suggested by light ink washes and areas of bare silk—toward a distant shore where a solitary fisherman rows his boat.

Sesson Shūkei was a Zen priest and painter now best known for his eccentric takes on classical Buddhist themes. The meticulous brushwork and conventional corner-weighted composition of this landscape, however, suggests that it was painted early in Sesson’s career when he was a careful student of classical Chinese painting.

Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.