User:SnowyVillage/sandbox

In 1907, Okuhara Seiko designed Beauty by Plum and Window, a unique scroll that implements both painted images as well as poetic calligraphic writing in the Chinese language. Her art piece derives from a new formalized configuration of Chinese art known as “literati art” that was perceived as an outlet for artists to express themselves through multiple dimensions. In Beauty by Plum and Window, Seiko illustrates a beautiful young woman sitting by an open window as she glances outward towards a plum blossom tree. The painting insinuates a sense of duality between intimacy and secrecy, for the open window permits voyeurism from the external gaze while the combination of the window, curtain, and tree conceal and protect the woman’s beauty.