255 - MORIKAWA SOBUN: A SUPERB AND LARGE SIX-PANEL 'DEER IN A MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE' BYOBU (FOLDING SCREEN)

MORIKAWA SOBUN: A SUPERB AND LARGE SIX-PANEL 'DEER IN A MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE' BYOBU (FOLDING SCREEN) By Morikawa Sobun (1847-1902), signed Sobun with seal Sobun in ga Japan, dated 1898 Ink, watercolors, gouache, and gold paint on paper. Mounted on silk brocade on six wood panels. Finely painted with a stag and doe standing beneath gnarled pine trees, their finely brushed coats and delicately articulated antlers contrasting with the softer treatment of the surrounding landscape. The composition opens toward distant mountain peaks receding into layers of mist, while restrained washes of ink and color merge with the warm gold ground to create a tranquil, atmospheric setting. Inscriptions: To the lower left, inscribed 明治戊戌秋寫 曽文 Meiji tsuchinoe-inu aki sha, Sobun [Painted in autumn of the tsuchinoe-inu year of Meiji (1898), Sobun] and sealed 曽文印畫 Sobun in ga [Painted and sealed Sobun]. SIZE 171.5 x 378 cm Condition: Excellent condition with only very minor wear and scattered foxing. Dating to the mature phase of Morikawa Sobun’s career, the present screen exemplifies his celebrated treatment of deer within atmospheric landscapes. The stag and doe are rendered with finely observed fur and antlers, while the monumental pine, pale foreground, and distant mountains dissolve into soft washes and mist. The contrast between the sharply observed animals and the spacious landscape is characteristic of Sobun’s refined interpretation of the Maruyama-Shijo tradition. Morikawa Sobun (1847-1902) was born in Kyoto and was known personally as Eiken. He studied painting under Maekawa Gorei and Hasegawa Gyokuho and later served as an instructor at the Kyoto Prefectural Painting School. Working within the Maruyama-Shijo tradition, Sobun became particularly celebrated for his sensitive depictions of deer and other animals. His naturalistic approach continues a tradition established by earlier animal painters such as Mori Sosen (1747-1821), whose closely observed studies of deer and monkeys helped define animal painting within the broader Maruyama-Shijo sphere. Sobun combined this tradition of close observation with the poetic, atmospheric landscapes characteristic of late 19 th-century Kyoto painting. Museum comparison: Compare Morikawa Sobun's 'Deer and Fawn among Oak Trees', dated 1898, the same year as the present screen, color on silk, 160.9 x 115.1 cm, in the Museum of the Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan, Tokyo, management number SZK000041. The work was exhibited at the 1898 Japan Art Association exhibition, where it received a second-class silver medal, and was acquired there for the Imperial Household. Compare a closely related pair of six-panel folding screens, 'Deer and Pine in the Snow', by Morikawa Sobun, dated 1892, painted on paper, size 171 x 378.6 cm (each), in the British Museum, London, registration number 1985,0720,0.1-2. Auction comparison: Compare a related two-panel screen depicting a pair of deer, by the Shijo school painter Mori Sosen (1747-1821), late 18 th-early 19 th century, 165.4 x 186.7 cm, at Christie’s, Arts of Asia Online, 27 March 2025, New York, lot 129 (sold for USD 27,720 or approx. EUR 25,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).