Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryBeauty Beneath a Willow Tree
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Compare the careful pattern of her dark robe and sash with the few quick strokes of the willow above her, then find the round fan in her hand.
Koryūsai painted as well as designed prints, and the Art Institute dates this silk scroll to about 1780. A young woman strolls under a willow, absorbed in her thoughts. Her black robe, worn over red layers, and her sash worked with phoenixes are painted in close detail, while the willow and the ground are only sketched in ink. The museum reads her finery as a sign that she is on her way to an engagement.
Hanging scroll; ink on silk · 100.2 × 32.6 cm · Art Institute of Chicago
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- Beauty Beneath a Willow Tree
- Artist
- Isoda Koryusai Japanese, 1735-1790
- Date
- Edo period, c. 1780
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink on silk
- Dimensions
- 100.2 × 32.6 cm (39 7/16 × 12 7/8 in.); Overall with mount and knobs: 184 × 52.4 cm (72 7/16 × 20 5/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.