SHIBATA ZESHIN: ELDERLY COUPLE (ROFUFU)

拍品描述

SHIBATA ZESHIN: ELDERLY COUPLE (ROFUFU) By Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), signed Zeshin with seal mark Shin Japan, 19th century, late Edo (1615-1868) to Meiji period (1868-1912) Ink and watercolors on silk. Mounted as a hanging scroll within a silk brocade frame with wood jikusaki (roller ends). Finely painted in vivid brushstrokes to depict an elderly man smoking a pipe while taking a break, his robe loosened, and accompanied by his wife who spins a wheel. The background featuring bundles of straw and a bag of food and cups. Inscriptions: To the lower right corner, signed 是真 Zeshin with seal mark 真 Shin. To the exterior of the scroll, Rofufu no zu, Shibata Zeshin hitsu with one seal mark, and another three seal marks below. To the cover and one side of the storage box, inscribed Rofufu no zu, Shibata Zeshin hitsu, (one scroll). To the interior of the cover, inscribed with an authentication of the painting and signed by the artist's second son Shinsai with seal in 1885. Image SIZE 125.3 x 33 cm, SIZE incl. mounting 194.5 x 51 cm With an inscribed wood tomobako. Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) was a Japanese painter and lacquer artist of the late Edo period and early Meiji era. He studied under the great artists of the Kyoto school, including Maruyama Okyo, Okamoto Toyohiko, and Goshin. Though he would later be known primarily for his work with lacquers, Zeshin excelled at traditional ink painting, and produced many works of traditional subjects such as tigers and waterfalls. He inherited the Koma School workshop after his old teacher, Koma Kansai, died in 1835. It was here that he experimented with the technical aspects of lacquer. Along with Nakayama Komin and Shirayama Shosai, he is considered one of the three great late lacquerers of Japan. Shibata Zeshin's studio was situated on the bank of a river, providing him with ample opportunity to observe nature, and the creatures that inhabited the natural world. Like many painters of the 19th century, he was eclectic in his sources and would have been exposed to traditional styles. However, Zeshin's skill level was such that he could fluidly mix techniques, ideas, and stylistic options, thus painting part of a composition in one manner and including elements of another to add a style and variety unheard of at the time. Museum comparison: Compare a related album leaf of an old man viewing the moon by Shibata Zeshin, dated 1886, 27.7 x 19.2 cm, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 50.2159. Auction comparison: Compare a related painting featuring a woman drying seaweed by Shibata Zeshin, 96 x 27.9 cm (the image), at Christie’s, Japanese and Korean Art Online, 7 November 2019, New York, lot 86 (sold for USD 6,000 or approx. EUR 6,600 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Compare a related painting featuring Jurojin and immortals by Shibata Zeshin, 136 x 55.3 cm (the image), at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Art, 9 November 2017, London, lot 111 (sold for GBP 6,000 or approx. EUR 9,400 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).

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