About this work
These large-scale vases represent a mix of Chinese porcelain vase forms and Japanese imagery. The Japanese-inspired painterly decoration contrasts markedly with the formal Chinese-inspired, modelled framing details. The marine decoration encompasses waterlilies, seaweed, fish and crustaceans, yet it is difficult to determine whether, as a viewer, we are underwater with the crustaceans or looking down from above at the waterlilies. Such ambiguity is a common device in Japanese art. The decorator has also taken the liberty of continuing the seaweed decoration onto the neck of one of the vases, paying no heed to the formal framing devices.