Peacocks

Peacocks

In contrast with the peacocks depicted realistically and gorgeously even in detail in western painting style, cherry blossoms and butterflies are in soft brushwork with light and shade. The depiction of the rock surface has rich three-dimensional effect with thick shade. By combining these different brushworks, perspective full of actuality and reality is produced. It is not only Araki's representative work with excellent harmony between the style of the United Schools of Nanshu and Hokushu and of western painting, but is also a masterpiece decorating the history of flower and bird paintings of the middle Meiji era. （「New Edition　Grace, Beauty and Inqenuity-Masterpices of the Museum of Imperial Collections, Sannomaru Shozokan　Vol.1」2003）