ANONYMOUS
Geese and Egrets
Edo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th century
A pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, colors, gofun (calcified crushed oyster-shell gesso), and gold on paper within a double silk brocade border, mounted on a wood lattice within a lacquered wood frame; the right-hand screen depicting a flock of geese, some descending past the moon, others foraging or resting among grasses; the left-hand screen depicting a flock of egrets, three perched on the trunk of a willow tree, one flying down and others wading in a stream; each with seals Kanō, Sansetsu
59 1/2 × 140 1/4in (151.1 × 356.2cm) each
Footnotes:
The composition in the right-hand screen combines two frequently seen autumnal themes within Japanese art: a goose crying out in front of the moon and wild goose or geese amid reeds. Both are meant to portray the solitary feel of late autumn. As could be expected by the night scene, some geese appear to be flying back to their nesting grounds, while others are already contentedly asleep, apparently not disturbed by their honking brethren. The left screen of this pair matches egrets with willows. Although this combination can also appear in depictions of the spring or early summer, the white pigment on the trunk of the tree, together with the bare willow branches and lack of blooming flowers, leads us to see this pair of screens as moving us compositionally from autumn on the right into winter on the left. Both pairings of geese with reeds, and egrets with willows, have existed in Japanese art since the Muromachi period (1336-1573) and executed in artworks by famous artists such as Sesson Shūkei (1504-c. 1589) and Kanō Masanobu (1434-1530).

The two seals of Kanō and Sansetsu on both screens indicate an attribution of these paintings to Kanō Sansetsu (1589-1651), but comparison to seals on known paintings by Sansetsu suggests an alternate, unknown, authorship.
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