This study was part of a decorative commission for the vestibule of a villa belonging to the Austrian jurist Julius Albers. Klinger incorporated architectural elements like gold columns and the decorative frieze to frame these scenes and enhance his overall scheme. The centaurs reappear in the right portion, where the figures almost disappear into the arid, rocky landscape. In the left portion, two centaurs, hybrid creatures who were part human and part horse, battle fiercely in a grassy plain. In this drawing, Max Klinger presented two sun-drenched ancient landscapes. The Museum is grateful to the Sumitomo Foundation in Tokyo, Japan, for providing a generous grant to fund the full-scale conservation and remounting of this screen at Nishio Conservation Studio in Washington, D.C. This screen was the first Japanese painting to enter the Museum’s collection in 1920. Tawaraya Sōtatsu (1570–1643), one of the founders of the Rinpa school, first used this seal, and it continued to be used by successive artists in his workshop. At the lower left corner is a round I’nen seal impressed in red. Together, the bush clover, Chinese bellflower, and Japanese silver grass are three of the so-called “seven grasses of autumn” ( aki no nanakusa) and reinforce the seasonal theme. Blue Chinese bellflowers ( kikyō Platycodon grandiflorus) also animate the lower right while clumps of delicate Japanese silver grass ( susuki Miscanthus sinensis) emerge from behind the chrysanthemums at the back. The white-flowering variety of the bush clover ( shirohagi Lespedeza japonica) in the lower right corner, a favorite motif among Japanese poets since ancient times, is associated with melancholy and unrequited love. The petals of the white chrysanthemums were painted in a raised technique called moriage. The chrysanthemums are shown in three distinct colors: white, orange, and red.
This screen features chrysanthemums ( kiku in Japanese) and autumnal plants ( akikusa, literally “autumnal grasses”) against a gold background enlivened with golden clouds.