Pine trees, water and clouds

Japanese painters often depict the verdant landscapes of their native land in rich, opaque colors. The paintings on the paper surfaces of these sliding-door panels once adorned a room in an elite residence, providing an illusion of a view toward a scenic landscape of a pine grove growing along a shoreline. For large-scale paintings like these, gold leaf depicts clouds, mist, and hills. In their original architectural settings, the gold created subtle, transient reflections.