The Pines and the Cranes
Sold – no longer available
This piece was a handmade one-of-a-kind work. It cannot be reordered and will never exist in this form again. The page stays online as part of our archive.
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Details about the sold piece
- Item Type Kakemono
- Material Honshi Silk
- Technique Hand-Painted
- Unique Work Yes
No longer available
Description
Between two mighty peaks, whose flanks fade into the haze, a gnarled pine grows out of the rock and stretches its branches over a quiet valley with thatched-roof houses. At the upper edge of the painting, small groups of cranes have settled on the heights – hardly more than a few brushstrokes, yet set down by an attentive painter with a sure hand.
Pine and crane are among the oldest symbols of good fortune in East Asian painting: the evergreen pine stands for constancy and long life, the crane for wisdom and great age. In combination, such paintings traditionally wish for longevity and well-being – a motif that was gladly hung in refined rooms or on festive occasions.
The kakemono is painted entirely by hand on silk, in restrained gray and earth tones with fine details in the architecture of the houses and in the branches of the pine. As a unique work by a Japanese painter, it combines classical landscape composition with a calm, meditative visual language and makes a stylish eye-catcher for lovers of traditional Japanese hanging scrolls.