Description

A gently curved wooden bridge crosses a pale blue shimmering stream, connecting the rocky foreground with a farmstead whose thatched-roof main house is flanked by two smaller outbuildings with gray-blue roofs. Fresh, light green foliage stands all around, in places already tinged with yellow.

The entire middle ground dissolves into soft haze, out of which only isolated clusters of conifers emerge as dark specks. On the left, a tall, narrow waterfall falls over a gray rock face, scarcely more than a pale streak. Above, a broadly rounded mountain ridge closes off the composition, its contour almost entirely lost. The narrow footbridge in the foreground is the only clearly delineated structure and serves the eye as an entry point into the depth of the image.

The painting technique works with heavily diluted ink and sparingly applied color, creating a moist, spring-like atmosphere of the kind that actually occurs in the Japanese mountain regions after rain. Signature and red seal are located at the lower left. Executed as a silkscreen print on silk, this hanging scroll titled Bridge at the Farmstead in Spring Haze is a quiet, congenial work.