Peonies

A pair of hanging scrolls side by side, tree peonies in white, blush pink and scarlet with one custard-yellow bloom, all set against deep lapis blue. Butterflies, a dragonfly and a grasshopper move through the jade leaves, the gnarled stems root in pale sandy ground at the foot, and a patterned brocade mount frames both panels. Kano Yoshinobu painted them in late eighteenth-century Japan.

Two wide fields of flat blue and a plain sand-coloured base mean most of the work sits out at the edges rather than in the flowers. Finished size 68 x 51cm.