Courtesan Eguchi as the Bodhisattva Fugen with a White Elephant

Artists

Description

A beautiful woman clothed in a sumptuously decorated blue, white, and gold kimono stands grasping a thin staff in both hands while swirling bands of white clouds trail behind her, gather beneath her feet, and take on the form of a white elephant; beneath these ethereal figures appears an expanse of pale blue waves. The subject of this exquisite painting derives from a fifteenth-century Noh play about a courtesan believed to be a manifestation of Fugen Bosatsu (Sanskrit, Bodhisattva Samantabhadra), a Buddhist deity described in the Lotus Sutra as accompanying the Historical Buddha Shakyamuni and typically depicted in Buddhist art as holding a staff and riding a white elephant. The imagery here is perfectly complemented by a dark blue and white silk mounting painted to echo the swirling clouds and flowing waves in the painted scene. The signature and seal of artist Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747) appears in the lower right corner of the composition.

Dimensions

painting proper: H. 92.1 x W. 35.7 cm (36 1/4 x 14 1/16 in.) mounting, inlcuding suspension core and roller ends: H. 181.6 x W. 54.8 cm (71 1/2 x 21 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Louis V. Ledoux Collection, New York (by 1948), by descent; to his son L. Pierre Ledoux, New York (1948-2001), by inheritance; to his widow Joan F. Ledoux, New York, (2001-2013), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2013. Footnotes: 1. Louis V. Ledoux (1880-1948) 2. L. Pierre Ledoux (1912-2001) 3. On long term loan to Harvard Art Museums from 1981 to 2013.