Preparatory sketch

In Japanese painting, complex compositions could be plotted onto a grid. The lines for this were laid using a carpenter’s reel, a wooden tool with a taut string. The string was dipped in ink and then ‘plucked’ onto the paper surface. This is a small-scale sketch recording a two-panel screen painting entitled ‘Jade Bamboo Grove and White Cranes.’ Exhibited in 1890, it was purchased by the newly founded art school.