Two Dragons Competing for the Jewel
painter
Yokoyama Taikan
(1868 - 1958)
Date1904
Place MadeJapan, East Asia
MediumColor on silk
Dimensions51.2 x 76 cm (20 3/16 x 29 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberCR34n46
eMuseum ID728279
Previous NumberC45
EmbARK ObjectID16099
Original NumberNo. 45
Previous NumberC22
TMS Source ID4491
Last Updated8/9/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryTwo Dragons Competing for the Jewel is a depiction not of dragons but of gnarled branches of old pines reaching from either side of the painting and twisting like cork screws, their ends shaped to suggest the heads of bird-like dragons. Between the two pines is a full moon set against a cloud-streaked sky. The glowing moon suggests the prize the rival dragons seek, traditionally a precious jewel.
Isabella received this painting as a gift from Josephine MacLeod, who gave it as a memento of their mutual friend, curator and scholar Okakura Kakuzo. Both women believed the painting to be Okakura's work, and it was added to the Chinese Room in his honor. Unknown to Isabella, this was her second work by Yokoyama Taikan, one of Okakura's best students and one of Japan's most famous modern painters, the first being the sketch he painted of chrysanthemum leaves in her guest book when he visited her with Okakura in 1904.
Isabella received this painting as a gift from Josephine MacLeod, who gave it as a memento of their mutual friend, curator and scholar Okakura Kakuzo. Both women believed the painting to be Okakura's work, and it was added to the Chinese Room in his honor. Unknown to Isabella, this was her second work by Yokoyama Taikan, one of Okakura's best students and one of Japan's most famous modern painters, the first being the sketch he painted of chrysanthemum leaves in her guest book when he visited her with Okakura in 1904.
BibliographyNotesVictoria Weston. East Meets West: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Okakura Kakuzo. Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum V. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1992), pp. 4, 60-64 ill.
Inaga Shigemi. "The Interaction of Bengali and Japanese Artistic Milieus in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (1901-1945): Rabindranath Tagore, Arai Kanpo, and Nadalal Bose." Japan Review (2009), pp. 149-81, fig. 25.
Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 36, 39 fig. 40, 40, 401, 405-08 fig. 14
Inaga Shigemi. "The Interaction of Bengali and Japanese Artistic Milieus in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (1901-1945): Rabindranath Tagore, Arai Kanpo, and Nadalal Bose." Japan Review (2009), pp. 149-81, fig. 25.
Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 36, 39 fig. 40, 40, 401, 405-08 fig. 14
MarksNotes
Inscribed in black ink (back of frame): Japanese characters
Inscribed in pencil (back of frame): Order 4809 / Detail 1803 Nov 17
ProvenanceNotesGift from Josephine MacLeod (1858–1949), a friend and devotee of Swami Vivekananda, to Isabella Stewart Gardner in October 1913 (as by Okakura Kakuzo).
