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Japanese Two Panel Screen: Summer Flowers in a Garden Setting

This Japanese two-panel screen, dating to the Edo period (circa 1700), depicts a flourishing garden landscape with peonies and other summer flowers growing alongside a woven fence. Executed in mineral pigments on heavy gold leaf, the composition balances richly detailed botanical forms with the luminous simplicity of the gold ground. The peony, long celebrated in Japan as a symbol of prosperity, elegance, and abundance, takes center stage among the layered foliage. The screen exemplifies the decorative refinement and appreciation for cultivated nature that characterized Japanese painting during the Edo period (1603–1868).