Signed at lower left in gold Shuntei 春汀 with a red seal Shuntei

Comes with double wooden tomobako storage boxes, the inner box inscribed outside Unkai 雲海 (An Ocean of Clouds); signed inside Shuntei dai 春汀題 (Inscribed by Shuntei) and sealed Yamamoto Saburō saku 山元三郎作 (Made by Yamamoto Saburō).

This imposing, atmospheric composition is an important transitional work, prefiguring the mature career of Yamamoto Shuntei, an artist who would devote the latter half of his life, from his early fifties until his death at the age of ninety-eight, almost exclusively to paintings of Mount Fuji, under the name Yamamoto Ōgetsu. Here, still signing with his earlier art name, Shuntei demonstrates a masterly command of Nihonga painting techniques, employing traditional mineral pigments, ink, and gold on silk to create a majestic vision of layered cloud banks with soft, luminous forms whose profound sense of natural mysticism and tranquility is given emphasis by a gleaming gold sun setting in the far distance.

Unlike his later works, Mount Fuji is absent. Instead, the two peaks in the background, rendered in an unusually vivid blue, are more likely identifiable with the Hotaka Range in Nagano Prefecture, the subject of another painting exhibited by the artist at a special Bunten exhibition held in October 1936.

Born in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, Shuntei trained under his uncle, the celebrated Kyoto painter Yamamoto Shunkyo, several of whose works (as well as some by Shunkyo’s other pupils), have recently been handled by Thomsen Gallery. Specializing in landscape painting, Shuntei exhibited regularly at the Bunten and Teiten exhibitions from the Taisho through the early Showa eras, attaining the rank of Recommended Exhibitor in 1929. Following Shunkyo's death in 1933, he adopted the name Ōgetsu, using it alongside Shuntei until fully relinquishing the earlier name around the time of the 1936 exhibition. He continued to exhibit landscapes at the major national exhibitions until 1941, but already in 1940 he had moved to Yamanakako Village in Yamanashi Prefecture, where he immersed himself in the observation and sketching of Mount Fuji. Gradually withdrawing from the organized art world, he distanced himself from exhibition circles and severed his relationships with commercial art dealers. In later years he came to believe that “if people were to gaze upon Mount Fuji, captivated by its sublime form, no one would even think of war; instead, they would naturally join forces in the cause of peace.” Guided by this conviction, he presented numerous paintings of Fuji to world leaders as gifts.