Box inscriptions:
“Chōdō painted a group of flowers of the divine class.
[2] 花圖 神品 暢堂先生真蹟審定者也
昭和壬申春(日) 皐鶴再識 (？鶴)
“Painting of Various Flowers, of the divine class; Authenticated as a work by Chodo on a Spring day during the year 1932 of the Showa reign-era, by Kokaku writing again.”
…
A garden rock expressively brushed in dark ink washes anchors the complex composition of bamboo and various flowers, including iris, chrysanthemum, orchid, hydrangea, peony, and lily. The rock, both a stable presence and a rhythmically alive one, provides contrast to the delicate forms and colors of the rich botanical world that surrounds it. As in works by contemporaneous Impressionists in Paris, the scene seems almost accidental, a momentary vision, with forms presented in terms of points of color.
Maeda Chodo was the son of a doctor in Handa (Chinese: Handen) in Tokushima prefecture. Maeda Chodo was born in Kyoto and late in life in 1872 took the name Handen. He studied for a time under Nakajima Raisho (1796-1871), a painter of the Maruyama school but was most deeply indebted, as is very evident here, to the Nanga literati master Yamamoto Baiitsu (1783-1856), a teacher who speaks to us through his accomplished pupil in the present painting. The light and airy aura of the gathering of flowers, the fragility of colors bringing to gentle life one blossom after another, and the naturalistic weaving of flowers, leaves, twigs, and blades into a thicket that breathes beauty and freshness, do justify ranking this work among the divine.
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