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Swift Bull

Swift Bull

early 14th century

This simple but remarkable painting portrays a mighty bull in intense black ink on a plain background. Notice the delicate details, such as the fine hair on the head and the light color around the eyes. Bulls were famed and valued for pulling aristocrats’ carriages in the earlier Heian period (794–1185).
Hanging scroll; ink and slight color on paper
10 5/8 x 12 3/4 in. (27 x 32.4 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Donald E. Frederick
50.66
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySan Francisco, California, San Francisco Museum of Art, Art In Asia and the West, 1957.

San Francisco, California, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Treasures Of Japan, 1960.

Claremont, California, Claremont Graduate School and Scripps College, Japanese Art In America, 1960.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Japanese Art In The Seattle Art Museum, 1960.

Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, Japanese Decorative Style, 1961 (Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, 1961).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Cranes: Treasures Of Japanese Art, Feb. 5 - July 12, 1987.

Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo National Museum, Anniversary Exhibition, Oct. 12 - Nov. 23, 1992.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Masterpieces of Japanese Art from the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Nov.1, 1998 - Mar. 1, 1999.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Flights of Fancy: Natural and Supernatural Images In Japanese Art, Dec. 9, 1998 - Aug. 1, 1999.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Thousand Years of Beauty: Japanese Art in Seattle, July 16, 2001 - Nov. 17, 2002.

Tokyo, Japan, Suntory Museum of Art, Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum, July 25 - Sept. 6, 2009 (Kobe, Japan, Kobe City Museum, Sept. 19 - Dec. 6, 2009; Kofu, Japan, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art, Dec. 23, 2009 - Feb. 28, 2010; Atami, Japan, MOA Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - May 9, 2010; Fukuoka, Japan, Fukuoka Art Museum, May 23 - July 19, 2010).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view Feb. 8, 2020 - July 11, 2021].
Published ReferencesToda, K., "Japanese Scroll Painting," 1934, p. 102

Lee, Sherman E. "Japanese Art in Seattle," in Oriental Art, Winter 1949-50, p. 92

"Handbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works from the Permanent Collections." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1951, p. 89 (b&w)

Lee, Sherman E. "Japanese Monochrome Painting at Seattle," in Artibus Asiae, vol. 14, nos. 1,2, 1951, p. 58.

Seattle Art Museum Guild, "Engagement Calendar," 1953, no. 31

Paine-Soper, "Art & Architecture of Japan," 1955, p. 73, pl. 65

Grilli, E. "Sotatsu," 1956, p. 64

San Francisco Museum of Art, CA, ART IN ASIA & THE WEST, 1957, ill. p. 25

Fuller, Richard E. "Japanese Art in the Seattle Art Museum: An Historical Sketch." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1960 ("Presented in commemoration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and the United States of America"), no. 72

Davidson, J. LeRoy. "Japan and Dehumanization of Beauty," in Art News (April 1960), p. 24, fig. 3

Lee, Sherman E. "Japanese Decorative Style," 1961, p. 32 and illus., no. 26, p. 138

"The Great Benefactors of Japanese Art," 1961, illus. p. 21, (in Japanese)

Moskowitz, Ira, ed. "Great Drawings of All Times," 1962, vol. IV, no. 908

Thomas, Edward B. "Oriental Art in the Seattle Art Museum," in Art in America, no. 1, 1965, illus. p. 52

Yashiro, Yukio. "Characteristic of Japanese Fine Arts," 1965, 2 vols., p. 137, fig. 125 (in Japanese)

Mayuyama, Junkichi, "Japanese Art in the West," 1966, #118

Shimada, Shujiro, "Japanese Art in the West," 1969

Mayuyama, Junkichi. "Mayuyama, Seventy Years," 1976, vol. II, p. 190, pl. 376

Stern, Harold P. "Birds, Beasts, Blossoms and Bugs. The Nature of Japan," catalogue, UCLA Art Council and the Frederick S. Wight Gallery, Los Angeles (1976, no. 3, pp. 17-18

"Japanese Art in Foreign Collections (Paintings)," in Genshoku Nihon no Bijutsu, Vol .27. Tokyo, Japan: Shogakkan Publisher, 1980, pl. 38

Kawai, Masatomo, Yasuhiro Nishioka, Yukiko Sirahara, editors. "Luminous Jewels: Masterpieces of Asian Art From the Seattle Art Museum". 2009, The Yomiuri Shimbun, catalogue number 34

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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