Waterfall

Japanese painters in the 1800s and early 1900s sometimes extended their artistry to the borders surrounding the painting, rather than leaving the job to a professional to mount the painting on silks. For this painting of a waterfall on silk, Watanabe Seitei created a mounting by piecing together sheets of indigo-dyed paper and then applying copper and silver paint. In his youth Seitei trained under several famous painters, including briefly under Shibata Zeshin. Seitei was among the first Japanese painters to travel to Europe when he visited Paris in his late twenties.