Wild Horses
Unknown
Soga Shōhaku 曾我 蕭白 Japanese, 1730-1781
Japan
The four panels of this work show wild horses enjoying different activities: standing, running, playing, and resting. Soga Shōhaku’s expressive force as an artist comes through in his seemingly spontaneous brushwork, which is quite rough in comparison to that of his contemporaries. The freedom with which he wielded his brush matches the spirit of the untamed animals he took as his subject in this work.
Pair of two-panel screens; ink on paper.