Small Deer

A young deer stands attentively amid autumn-colored foliage and dark evergreen needles, its head slightly lowered, as if it had just perceived a sound. In the Japanese pictorial tradition, the deer is regarded as a symbol of grace and a long, happy life, and appears especially often in autumn landscape scenes, as suggested here with distant mountain ranges and gnarled trees.

This piece is a makuri, meaning the unframed picture field of a hanging scroll without the customary textile border. The upper and lower edges of the former mounting are missing; the painting itself is unaffected by this and can, for instance, be newly presented in a suitable frame to bring out its fine brushwork and delicate coloring.

The scene was painted by hand on silk, presumably in the Shôwa period, with the sensitivity for evocative observation of nature typical of that era. As a unique work by a Japanese artist, this small autumn painting brings a quiet, poetic note to any room open to the subtle tones of traditional Far Eastern painting.