Nine Flowers of the Four Seasons

Nine Flowers of the Four Seasons by Tsubaki Chinzan Edo period, Japan.  Tsubaki Chinzan (1801-1854) first studied painting with Kaneko Kinryo.  He also mastered the so-called “boneless” technique (lacking contour lines) of the Chinese artist Yun Nantian.  Chinzan was particularly skilled in the “bird and flower” genre and was esteemed as the best painter of flowering plants in his time.

This is the upper portion of the painting depicting red plum blossoms, peony and white magnolias.  Painted in 1852 when Chinzan was 52 years old.