Peony and Japanese Yellow Bunting (modern spelling 黃鵐) with wild fruits. Original color woodblock print from the album Kaihaku raikin zui, published 1790′s. Signed: Keisai sha. Seal: Kitao Masayoshi.
Masayoshi was a student of Shigemasa, who made his first artistic appearance 1780 with a series of illustrations for Kibyoshi magazines. As Ukiyo-e artist, he specialized primarily in warrior pictures (musha-e) and landscape depictions in so-called Uki-e style using Western perspective.
As of 1794, after his appointment as court painter of Daimyos from Tsuyama, from then on named Kuwagata Keisai, he turned his back to the Ukiyo-e style and developed a new manner of painting inspired by genre and Kano painting.
OBAN YOKO-E 23 x 35,2 CM
From a Viennese private collection