House by the Lake, Saeki Gantai(1785-1865) - Paper - Japan - Late Edo period

Signed and stamped. Hand-painted. Wooden ends of the roll. Width with roll ends: 53 cm.
“Saeki Gantai” (better known as “Kishi Gantai”, jap. „岸岱“) was a Kyōto-born painter of the late Edo period. The family name was “Saeki” (佐伯); “Kishi” is the artist’s name of the school. “Gantei” is an alternative transcription of “Gantai.” The life dates vary slightly in the sources: often “1782–1865,” or “1785–1865.” Both refer to the same artist.
He was the legitimate son of Kishi Ganku (岸駒, ca. 1749/1756–1839), the founder of the “Kishi School” (岸派). Ganku came from Kanazawa (some sources: Takaoka), moved to Kyoto, and created his own studio tradition between:
- Chinese “Nanpin painting” (Shen Nanpin): precise, vividly colored flower-and-bird painting
- the “Maruyama-Shijō School”: natural observation and lively animal portrayal
- and his own very strong brush for animals, especially tigers.
Gantai, as the second generation, took over the school. Like his father, Gantai served the “Arisugawa-no-miya” house, a branch of the imperial family, and held comparable honorary titles (including “Uta-no-suke” / 雅楽助). The school was not a “free Bohemian” circle, but a court-and-commission atelier in Kyoto: sliding doors (Fusuma), folding screens (Byōbu), hanging scrolls for palaces, temples, and city palaces.
A highlight were the wall paintings for the Imperial Palace after the reconstruction in the 1850s (Ansei Restoration, 安政度内裏). There Gantai, as the head of the school, took on the major tasks; Renzan worked with him but lagged behind.
In 19th-century Kyoto, the Kishi School stood beside Maruyama-Shijō, remnants of the Kanō School, and literati painting (Nanga). Their pictures hang not only in museums: in Kyoto one finds Kishi works in temples, town houses, and former palace areas. Gantai is the man who continued the paternal tiger-and-animal painting, until the next generation (Renzan, then Chikudō) opened it toward Meiji-Nihonga."