Orchid

The orchid—one of the four gentlemen of Chinese painting tradition alongside bamboo, plum, and chrysanthemum—was associated in East Asian aesthetics with the qualities of the refined scholar: quiet elegance, resilience in difficult conditions, and subtle fragrance rather than ostentatious display. Gekko's orchid study would have treated the plant in the meticulous manner of the kacho-e tradition, the long arching leaves and small complex flowers rendered with botanical precision within a compositionally assured arrangement.