Japan, 6 folds screen by Mori Ippo 1798-1871

Masterfully executed ink painting (sumi-e) on paper, of carps in a stream on a gold ground.
A Shijo painter, Ippo was born and lived in Osaka.
Ippo was heir to a tradition of naturalistic animal painting in Osaka
during the late Edo and very early Meiji periods.
His teacher, Mori Tetsuzan (1775-1841), was a son of the tradition's
founder, Mori Sosen (1747-1821), who was renowned for his depictions of the
native Japanese macaque.
Ippo married Tetsuzan's daughter and was formally adopted into the Mori
family, taking the family name. Ippo headed the Mori school in Osaka after
his adopted father's death.
In about 1850 he executed some of the paintings for the fusuma of the
Imperial Palace, Kyoto. He was an admirable painter of landscapes, birds and
and carps. He also produced scenes of Osaka life rendered in an
unconventional manner.
Works by the artist can be found in the collections of: Art Institute of
Chicago, Illinois; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, Walters Museum, Baltimore, Indianapolis Museum
of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum and British Museum, London and
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.
171 x 360 cm
Japan, 19th Century