Yanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with Peonies

Yanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with Peonies

Genki (Komai Ki)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Each scroll features a Chinese beauty who is lavishly dressed and exquisitely coiffed in the fashion of a Tang aristocratic lady. Though not identified by the artist, we can safely assume that he intended the beauty eyeing peonies on the left to refer to Yang Guifei (Japanese: Yōkihi), the infamous consort of Emperor Xuanzong (685–792) of the Chinese Tang dynasty, whose beauty was said “to put the flowers to shame.” The court lady with brush in hand, seated at a desk fashioned from a scholar’s stone with potted orchids behind her, is more difficult to identify. However, she is likely Yanji (Japanese: Enkitsu), a low-ranking concubine of Emperor Wen of Zheng who had an auspicious dream of orchids. Genki is recognized as one of the two most talented artists, along with Matsumura Goshun (1752–1811), to emerge from the circle of Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795), the founder of a school of naturalistic painting in Kyoto.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Yanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with PeoniesYanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with PeoniesYanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with PeoniesYanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with PeoniesYanji with Orchids and Yang Guifei with Peonies

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.