Twelve views of West Lake

This screen depicts twelve separate scenes from a lake located in Hangzhou, China. Between the Chinese Southern Song (1127–1279) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, a series of renowned sites on this lake were designated as “Views of West Lake.” These views became a popular theme for both Chinese and Japanese artists—although artists from Japan were prohibited from traveling to China, and thus had to rely on printed and painted images of the lake for inspiration. These screens by the Japanese artist Ike Taiga cover the course of a year, depicting different parts of West Lake with varying seasonal indicators. They showcase Taiga’s impressive range of brushwork and ink, and his remarkable ability to transform Chinese models into a distinctive style of his own.