Height: 3511.000 mm
Width: 1422.000 mm
Asia JP ADD1062 (1995.4-6.01)
Suzuki Shōnen, Composing a Poem among the Pines, a hanging scroll painting
Meiji era, AD 1906
This painting is a late masterpiece of the
The present work is remarkable for its size (some 3.5m high) and towering composition, yet the brushwork remains refined. Its subject seems to be the contented solitude of the ageing artist himself as he wanders among the idealized mountains of his imagination. The poem at the top reinforces this feeling:
leagues, only the shade of pines
A single valley sings with the voice of waters
What sort of man is this holding a staff
Gently walking and considering a poem as he goes?'
The inscription after the poem translates as 'Painted and inscribed on a summer day in 1906 at the Tōkinrō [Tower of the Eastern Brocade - the artist's studio] by Shōnen Senshi'. The seals read 'Suzuki Seiken', 'Shōnen Senshi' and '?-gen'.