Japan through the seasons

Exhibition of 19 September 2014 at 11 January 2015

At a time when environmental problems are at the center of concerns, this exhibition aims to show the emotional and deep links that unite the Japanese to Nature. It is through 60 paintings on paper and silk that the essence of their culture will be suggested: Representing plants, animals and landscapes whose themes are linked to a season or a month of the year, these works all bear witness to this particular sensitivity and receptivity of the Japanese to Nature.
The natural representations (flowers, birds, landscapes) are not in the Japanese culture of simple decorative motifs, but are always associated with a symbolism established by the poets since the VIII^e century. This literary codification was subsequently taken up by Japanese painters and artists. During the Edo period, artists enriched this iconography by adding themes of Chinese origin.

The course of the exhibition will show how the great pictorial currents of the XVIII^e and XIX^e centuries, have, while perpetuating a secular tradition, renewed the stylistic approach of these themes.
The works of artists of the sinizing movements of Nanga, realistic of Maruyama-Shijō and decorative of Rimpa will be exhibited, on different supports: vertical, horizontal and folding rollers. The greatest names in Japanese painting appear in this exceptional exhibition: Ike no Taiga ((1723-1776), Tani Bunchō (1763-1840), Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-1795), Sakai Hōitsu (1761-1828). last artist is presented the very rare series of 12 paintings of Flowers and birds 12 months², series of which we know an equivalent in the Japanese imperial collection.

The works all belong to the American collection of Mrs Betsy and Mr. Robert Feinberg. Some have been exhibited in Japan and at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Others are completely new.