A Pine Tree in the Snow, Suzuki Kiitsu

Archive Label 2003: Kiitsu was trained as a textile dyer and became known as an innovative colorist before he entered the studio of the leading Rimpa school artist Sakai Hoitsu. For this small painting of a cypress tree in snow, Kiitsu has used the abstracted forms, assymetrical compositions, and rich coloring that are characteristic of the Rimpa school. In these two fan paintings, he has also made superb use of tarashikomi, another Rimpa technique, in which colors are dripped or brushed into wet ink. Tarashikomi is closely related to an older textile technique in which wet colors are blended on cloth. It is perhaps no accident that the founder of the Rimpa style, Ogata Korin (1658-1716), came from a textile family and that Suzuki Kiitsu, one of its finest practitioners, was trained as a dyer. Archive Label date unknown: Originally trained as a dyer, Kiitsu entered the studio of the leading Rinpa School artist Sakai Hōitsu. These fan paintings, which may not have been intended for actual use, display characteristic elements of the Rinpa School: nearly abstracted forms in assymetrical compositions, rich coloring, and the tarashikomi technique (the dripping or brushing of colors into wet ink). The strong seasonal aspect is typical of Japanese painting. The paintings bear the signatures and seals of Kiitsu, but especially the plum blossom painting has been retouched. The blue used for the water is a later addition. What was probably the original color of blue is visible at the center bottom where a small portion of the later paint has chipped off.