Chinese landscape: summer
18th century
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number
F1907.640a-c
Tags
About this artwork
To 1906-1907
Art Historical Context
Kano Tan'yu (1602–1674), one of the most influential painters of Japan’s Edo period, created this hanging scroll titled *Chinese Landscape: Summer*. A leading figure in the prestigious Kano school, Tan'yu served the Tokugawa shogunate and helped shape official artistic tastes by blending Chinese ink-painting traditions with refined Japanese aesthetics. The work’s evocative title suggests a seasonal scene designed to convey the warmth and vitality of summer through carefully observed natural forms. As a kakemono, or hanging scroll, the painting would have been displayed in a tokonoma alcove du...