Shibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (1807–1891) DOOR WITH AUTUMN MAPLE-VIEWING SCENE 紅葉狩図蒔絵板戸 Meiji era (1868–1912), late 1880s
Sold for £350,500 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Japanese Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistShibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (1807–1891) DOOR WITH AUTUMN MAPLE-VIEWING SCENE 紅葉狩図蒔絵板戸
A paulownia-wood door panel, decorated in high-relief gold, silver, red, brown, and black takamaki-e, some areas highly polished and others heavily textured, depicting a silver tea kettle suspended from a natural branch laid on two rocks over a fire, pine needles and curling maple leaves lying nearby; the reverse painted in ink and silver paint with a sparrow flying above a stylized stream with sprigs of seri (Japanese parsley)
Signed in subori on the right, at the base of the rock, Zeshin 是真 with a kaō in the form of the character kin 巾
59.3 × 39 cm (23 3/8 × 15 3/8 in.)
Modern cloth-bound outer storage box (2)
Exhibited and Published
Nezu Bijutsukan 2012, cat. no.47
Footnotes
In his catalogue note for the 2012 Zeshin exhibition at the Nezu Museum, Takao Yō comments that the technique and design of this door, is closely related to a much-praised maki-e panel depicting a mushroom-gathering scene submitted by Zeshin to the first Naikoku Kangyō Hakurankai (National Industrial Exhibition), held in 1877. In combination with mushroom-gathering scenes of the kind seen in lot no. 9, designs based on the autumn custom of maple-viewing were one of Zeshin's favourite themes during the final fifteen years of his long career. Here he uses the range of special finishes he had perfected during the preceding decades to produce a exceptionally deep three-dimensional effect; similarly rough, rich textures, likely emulations of Western oil painting, are also seen, for example, on the rocks in Zeshin's panels of crayfish, exhibited in 1888, 1889, and 1890 (Gōke 1981, pl. no. 3). Parts of the fireplace are executed using a carving technique also seen in Zeshin's inrō made to resemble ancient sticks of ink (see, for example, Nezu 2012, cat. nos. 93–96).
A closely related maki-e panel of this subject by Keishin, in the collection of Zeshin's eldest son Reisai (1850–1915), was reproduced in a biography of Zeshin published in Kenchiku kōgei sōshi in June 1916 (Suzuki 1916).
For other examples of Zeshin's ink-and-colour painting (as opposed to maki-e) on sugi, seen on the reverse of this door, see lot no. 4 in the present catalogue and Gōke 1981, pl. nos. 211–218.
The kaō Zeshin added after his signature on this piece, in the form of the character kin 巾, is seen on works dating from 1879 onwards (for other examples, see Earle 1996, p. 30, [h]).
