Japanese
Tray: Farmers in a Rice Field, late 19th century
Lacquered wood (takamakié and togidashi), 12.4 x 9.8 cm (4 7/8 x 3 7/8 in.)
This small wooden tray shows a Japanese landscape in black and gold. Polished lacquer, charcoal dust, and speckles of gold form the mottled dark sky, delineate mountains, and distinguish water from plants in a series of rice paddies. The rice is shown in varying stages of growth in the different fields. Gold is speckled increasingly heavily in the foreground. The gold forms trees, hills, boulders, a village and farmers in either high or low relief. There are three human figures: two pick rice in the flooded field and one balances 4 oversized sacks on each side of a yoke as he steps out of the field. There is a raised border around the tray of irregular gold shapes against a black background.
Little Salon
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.