Ink and color on paper with lacquer sticks and guards
Dimensions:
H x W: 39.5 x 71.5 cm (15 9/16 x 28 1/8 in)
Type:
Painting
Origin:
Japan
Date:
1870-80
Period:
Edo period or Meiji era
Description:
A large paper folding fan, the top edge scalloped, painted with a 'night and day' design; the left hand in ink and colours with a hilly landscape, the right hand side with a gradually overlapping uniform blue night sky. The reverse with scattered butterflies in silver on a pink ground. The guards lacquered red. The fan leaf with a 'butterfly' signature of James McNeill Whistler and an autograph musical quotation signed P. de Sarasate.
Inscriptions:
This fan bears the signatures of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and the virtuoso violist and composer Pablo de Sarasate y Navascues (1844-1908). Whistler added his butterfly monogram and Sarasate inscribed a passage of music, presumably from one of his own compositions. These authentic inscriptions make the fan a unique document of the friendship between Sarasate and Whistler and their mutual interest in Japanese objects.
Collection:
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History:
Fans in Fashion: The Collection of Colin Lawton Johnson (1990-1991)
