screens has been held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1953, and were last displayed in 2013. The second pair of iris screens, circa 1710–1716, was also painted with ink and color on gold-foiled paper, and measure 163.7 by 352.4 centimetres (64.4 in × 138.7 in) each. Unlike the earlier pair of iris screens, this later pair includes a depiction of an angular bridge, a more explicit reference to the literary work that inspired both artworks. The Tales of Ise Both pairs of screens are inspired by an episode in The Tales of Ise, where the unnamed protagonist of the story (most likely Ariwara no Narihira) encounters the flowers near a rustic eight-plank bridge over a river. He was inspired to compose a romantic poem, a form of acrostic where the first syllable of each line spells out the Japanese word for iris, : Influence The screens clearly influenced the Irises paintings by Vincent van Gogh: he could never have seen the originals, which were still in Japan, but they were reproduced as woodcuts in a collection, the Kōrin Hyakuzu Kōhen. See also Red and White Plum Blossoms Notes References Irises, Nezu Museum 燕子花図 (kakitsubata-zu), Nezu Museum [http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39664 八橋図屏風 Irises at Yatsuhashi (Eight Bridges)], Metropolitan Museum of Art Designing Nature: The Rinpa Aesthetic in Japanese Art, John T. Carpenter, Metropolitan Museum of Art p.210 Irises: Vincent Van Gogh in the Garden, Jennifer Helvey, p.118 Twenty-Five Words for Iris: Ogata Korin at the Nezu Museum, Alan Gleason, artscape Japan Irises (kakitsubata) by Ogata Korn, Columbia University Byōbu Japanese paintings National Treasures of Japan Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Rinpa school