Object Details
- Artist
- Kano Hogai 狩野芳崖 (1828-1888)
- Description
- This monumental painting represents Kannon in the guise of a maternal figure who nurtures an infant surrounded by a halo. Both figures hover among clouds high above the stark landscape of the world where the child will live. The painting exhibits both a signature and seal.
- Label
- This monumental painting of Kannon, a bodhisattva (enlightened being) associated with infinite compassion, portrays the Buddhist deity in the guise of a maternal figure who nurtures an infant below surrounded by a halo. Both figures hover among clouds high above a stark landscape that represents the world where the newborn child will live. This unusual presentation of the familiar deity Kannon was based on traditional Buddhist works of art, in which the deity is sometimes attended or accompanied by a child. Hogai's work differs from traditional Buddhist paintings, however, in that the artist intended from the outset to create a painting for public display in art exhibitions rather than as an object of veneration for a Buddhist temple. This painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1883.
- The American educator Ernest F. Fenellosa (1853-1908), who served on Japan's Imperial Art Commission from 1886-89, became a strong advocate and patron of Kano Hogai after meeting him in 1883. In 1886, while traveling in Europe for the imperial art commission, Fenellosa purchased from art dealer Siegfried Bing this painting of Kannon, which he called "The Creation of Man." Charles Lang Freer purchased the painting in 1902 from Fenellosa. In the last year of his life, Hogai completed a second version of Hibo Kannon, which is now in the collection of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- Sotatsu: Making Waves (Saturday, October 24, 2015 to Sunday, January 31, 2016)
- Religious Art of Japan (December 18, 2002 to January 4, 2015)
- Japanese Art of the Meiji Era (September 20, 1997 to April 26, 1998)
- Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Paintings (October 25, 1955 to November 23, 1955)
- Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art (October 3, 1947 to February 25, 1956)
- Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Hanging Scrolls, Ceramics, and Sculpture (October 2, 1947 to January 23, 1951)
- Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Ceramics and Painting (May 2, 1946 to October 2, 1947)
- Japanese Paintings Buddhist Etc. (January 5, 1928 to December 8, 1941)
- Japanese Paintings and Pottery (May 2, 1923 to December 8, 1941)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- 1883
- Period
- Meiji era
- Accession Number
- F1902.225
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Ink, color and gold on silk
- Dimensions
- H x W (image): 163.9 × 84.6 cm (64 1/2 × 33 5/16 in)
- Origin
- Japan
- Related Online Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- See more items in
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Topic
- Buddhism
- bodhisattva
- Meiji era (1868 - 1912)
- child
- cloud
- Kannon
- Japan
- halo
- kundika
- kakemono
- Japanese Art
- Charles Lang Freer collection
- Record ID
- fsg_F1902.225
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye32b78a81e-d396-41e2-87f3-9c5ad68e8ae1
