Landscape with Pavilion

At lower right, a Chinese gentleman riding a donkey and a young attendant on foot head uphill toward a cluster of luxurious buildings framed by pine and willow trees. A friend awaits them in a lakeside pavilion. Standing at the parapet, he gazes out over an expanse of mist, water, and mountain peaks—all suggested by light ink washes and areas of bare silk—toward a distant shore where a solitary fisherman rows his boat. Sesson Shūkei was a Zen priest and painter now best known for his eccentric takes on classical Buddhist themes. The meticulous brushwork and conventional corner-weighted composition of this landscape, however, suggests that it was painted early in Sesson’s career when he was a careful student of classical Chinese painting.