
Wild Horses
<p>The four panels of this work show wild horses enjoying different activities: standing, running, playing, and resting. Soga Shōhaku’s expressive force as an artist comes through in his seemingly spontaneous brushwork, which is quite rough in comparison to that of his contemporaries. The freedom with which he wielded his brush matches the spirit of the untamed animals he took as his subject in this work.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1775
- Dimensions
- 167 × 184 cm (65 3/4 × 72 1/2 in.); Frame: 170.5 × 188 cm (67 3/16 × 74 1/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Soga Shohaku
Artist

Painting
Soga Shōhaku was a Japanese painter of the Edo period. Shōhaku distinguished himself from his contemporaries by preferring the brush style of the Muromachi period, an aesthetic that was already passé 150 years before his birth. His monstrous depictions of prominent figures were extremely unusual compared to other painters of his time.
Full artist profile →More
More by Soga Shohaku
Orchid Pavilion Gathering
1777 · hanging scroll; ink on silk
Wild Horses
1775 · Pair of two-panel screens; ink on paper.
The God of Good Fortune Jurōjin
1773
Taigong Wang [center of a triptych of Taigong Wang, Dragon, and Carp]
1770
Tigre
1770 · paper
Carp [left of a triptych of Taigong Wang, Dragon, and Carp]
1770
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Soga Shohaku
- Year
- 1775
- Dimensions
- 167 × 184 cm (65 3/4 × 72 1/2 in.); Frame: 170.5 × 188 cm (67 3/16 × 74 1/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1775-141993
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified


![Taigong Wang [center of a triptych of Taigong Wang, Dragon, and Carp]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Soga%20Sh%C5%8Dhaku%20-%20Taigong%20Wang%20%28center%20of%20a%20triptych%20of%20Taigong%20Wang%2C%20Dragon%2C%20and%20Carp%29%20-%202017.145.7.2%20-%20Minneapolis%20Institute%20of%20Art.jpg)
![Carp [left of a triptych of Taigong Wang, Dragon, and Carp]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Soga%20Sh%C5%8Dhaku%20-%20Carp%20%28left%20of%20a%20triptych%20of%20Taigong%20Wang%2C%20Dragon%2C%20and%20Carp%29%20-%202017.145.7.1%20-%20Minneapolis%20Institute%20of%20Art.jpg)