America / 1897
A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs A Rishi Stirring Up a Storm as drawing (America · 1897).
The spots of paint on the bottom left corner of this sheet show where the artist tested colors before applying them to his composition.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as watercolor and gouache over graphite and credits John La Farge (American, 1835–1910).
The museum's collection notes: In the late 19th century, John La Farge was one of the first American artists to take a serious interest in Japanese art. This watercolor was produced after La Farge visited Japan in 1886, where he studied Daoism and painting with the writer Okakura Kakuzō (1862–1913). Here, he employed Western modeling and depth, building the water’s mass through transparent washes of light and dark blue, but also simulated the asymmetrical composition, lyrical tone, and bright blue color palette of contemporary Japanese woodblock prints. Hinting at the relationship between humans and the natural world, the ocean’s tempestuous curls echo the swirls of dense
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The Cleveland Museum of ArtA Rishi Stirring Up a StormOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.