Image: Torii Kiyomasu II, Planting in Summer (c. 1724-1736).
For our Saturday art post we go back to Edo Japan to a scene of summer planting of rice.
The artist is Torii Kiyomasu II (there is a Kiyomasu I, also of the Torii school, but the relationship is not clear).
This painting is called Planting in Summer, from a series called Farm Life in the Four Seasons, produced circa 1724-1736. It is a woodblock print and this version is in the British Museum. The Museum offers a short description:
“Women are planting the young rice. A man brings plants in baskets, and a woman with a child brings refreshments. Scenes of the countryside and of peasant life are rare in the ‘Ukiyoe’ print before the nineteenth century. This copy is trimmed, but others retain the artist’s and publisher’s names printed at the bottom.”
The Art Institute of Chicago has a version with the text, as well as other pieces from the series.
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