Lot 801 A JAPANESE SCROLL PAINTING OF FUKUROKUJU, SESSON SHUKEI SCHOOL

School of Sesson Shukei (1504–1589), signed Sesson Shukei with one seal.
Japan, 17th–18th century, early Edo period (1615–1868). Finely painted in ink on paper, with a silk brocade frame and mounted as a hanging scroll, depicting the lucky god Fukurokuju holding with both hands a small scroll to his head. His mouth obscured but the eyes at least seemingly betraying an unusually serious expression, his cowl and wide sleeves rendered with bold, dynamic brushstrokes, the brows and beard are painted with dense brushwork, his nostril hairs with short lines, and the contours and wrinkles of his face with dynamic brushstrokes.
110 by 50 cm (image) and 190 by 70 cm (total).

Good condition with old wear, creasing, soiling.

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Germany.

Sesson Shukei (1504–1589) was a Japanese Zen monk and painter from the Muromachi period. He was born a member of the Satake clan, but left after being disinherited by his father and was inducted as a monk at Shoso-ji temple, the Satake bodaiji. Sesson was a master of ink painting, ranked with Sesshu Toyo, one of the greatest painters in Japanese history, and worked in a dramatic style that generally accentuated idiosyncrasy, humor, and exaggeration in his approach to subjects, whether figural or landscapes.

MUSEUM COMPARISON: Compare a related painting of Jurojin by Sesson Shukei, 136.5 x 70.6 cm, in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, accession number F2015.6a–d. Also compare to a closely related painting of Daruma, School of Sesson Shukei, dated 17th–18th century, in the British Museum, accession no. 1913,0501.0.109.