Page 117 - japanese and korean art Utterberg Collection Christie's March 22 2022

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KOBAYASHI SHUNSHO (1888-?)
Coastal Landscape
Each signed Shunsho, sealed Shunsho and Kobayashi Ume in
Pair of six-panel screens; ink, gofun and color on paper
64¬ x 145 in. (164.1 x 368.3 cm.) each (2)
$30,000-40,000

PROVENANCE:
Hosokawa Rikizo Collection
Meguro Gajoen Museum of Art, Tokyo
Kobayashi Shunsho studied painting in Kyoto under
Yamamoto Shunkyo. He was first accepted into the
government-sponsored exhibitions with the 9th Bunten in
1915, when his landscape entry won a prize. Shunsho also
exhibited at the 4th Teiten in 1922 and the 10th Teiten in
1929. Both of the latter paintings depict country houses in
bleak landscapes.
Shunsho composes this idyllic, summer landscape around
a circular bay. White surf echoes white sand; billowing
white clouds define the remote horizon of sea and sky; grass
blows under the pines almost at our feet, pale green on the
islet and surrounding hills. A haystack rock rises out of the
distant surf, balanced by two groups of pines framing the
composition in the foreground. Rocks and sand curl around
to the island, while on the right, barely seen through the
pines, a small dirt road wanders towards boats drying on the
sand. Beyond, three indigo-clad figures walk the road to a
fishing hamlet nestled beneath soaring hills, as mountains
recede towards the horizon.