LOT 50  TANI BUNCHŌ (1763 — 1841) Mount Fuji  

TA 5% Vat. TANI BUNCHŌ (1763 — 1841) Mount Fuji Edo period, circa 1840 A Japanese hanging scr...

TA 5% Vat. TANI BUNCHŌ (1763 — 1841) Mount Fuji Edo period, circa 1840 A Japanese hanging scroll painting, kakejiku , ink on paper, signed Bunchō and sealed Tenpō kanoe ne nanajuhachi-ō (Old Man of 78 years in the year of the Rat in the Tenpō period) to the lower left, contained in a box. Image 44cm x 69cm; total 144cm x 72cm (3) Provenance: the Claudio Perino Collection, Turin, acquired mostly in Japan in early 2000s. Exhibited: MAO Museo d'Arte Orientale, Turin, and MUSEC Museo delle Culture, Lugano, 2020 - 2022. Literature: the exhibition catalogue Kakemono, Five centiuries of Japanese painting. The Perino Collection , p. 177, no 161. Similar example can be seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, dated the same year, accession number 2007-144-1. A comparable scroll was sold at Christie’s New York on 24th March 2003, lot 36. The instantly recognisable Mount Fuji is seen rising above the mist, its iconic shape echoed in the reflections in the surface of rice paddies in the foreground. Descended from the eighth Tokugawa shōgun, Bunchō inherited samurai status from his father, poet Tani Rokkoku (1729–1809). He began his artistic career studying the techniques of the Kanō school under Katō Bunrei (1706 – 1882). Following Bunrei’s death, Bunchō developed his own artistic style working with a number of different masters from various schools, such as the literati painter Kitayama Kangen (1767–1801). In 1804 he completed his three-volume Meizan Zufu (Illustrations of Japan’s Famous Mountains) and his familiarity with Mount Fuji is clearly visible in this atmospheric depiction of the famous landmark. Bunchō’s versatility as an artist is visible as he moves away from his more well-known literati style of landscape to an image inspired by Japanese Zen-ga works. This lot has been imported from outside the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission (TA) regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. Standard VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium. Buyers are invited to familiarise themselves with these rules prior to bidding.