Ōmura Kōyō
Japanese, 1891-1983
Blue Phoenix
INV-1915
Ōmura Kōyō
Japanese, 1891-19831921
Blue Phoenix
Ōmura Kōyō Japanese, 1891-1983 →Japanese (culture or style)screenpainting
Date
1921
Medium
Pair of six-panel screens; ink, color, and gold on silk
Dimensions
Each: 190 × 376 cm (74 7/8 × 148 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with Funds Provided by the Weston Foundation; Alsdorf Acquisition Fund;Russell Tyson Endowment Fund; President's Exhibition and Acquisition FundFoundation
Ōmura Kōyō’s Blue Phoenix overwhelms the viewer with a close-up view of a lush tropical forest inhabited by a bird species known as the great argus. A pair on the right perches calmly, in contrast with the active male bird on the left, who is engaged in a mating dance and fans his patterned feathers out across multiple panels. The whole work also features the bright red-and-orange blossoms of the royal poinciana flower. The artist observed made in sketches of this wildlife during a trip to the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Komurasaki of the Miuraya and Shirai Gompachi (Miuraya Komurasaki, Shirai Gompachi)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806
Hamamatsu, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
Mitsuke: Ferries Crossing the Tenryu River (Mitsuke, Tenryugawa funawatashi), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858
