Page 39 - September 21 2021 Important Japanese Art Christie's NYC

PROPERTY FROM A PRINCELY COLLECTION
19 A SINGLE-CASE LACQUER INRO

MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), SIGNED ZESHIN (SHIBATA ZESHIN; 1807-
1891)
Finely decorated on a seido-nuri ground in
polychrome takamaki-e, with a persimmon
and two blackcurrants on one side and
blackcurrants on a branch on reverse, roiro-nuri
interior, lacquered ojime; incised signature on
base
2¬ in. (6.7 cm.) high

$30,000-40,000

PROVENANCE:
Edward Wrangham Collection; Bonhams, London, 15
May 2012, lot 266
W. L. Behrens Collection

Zeshin became a prolific painter of popular subjects and was
hugely popular with the Edo townsfolk in Edo period Japan.
His light-hearted and vivid depictions of everyday Japan, its
custom, and legends were among the earliest art to find favor
in the West after the Imperial Restoration. But it is as a lacquer
artist that Zeshin is perhaps best known, and for which his art
was acclaimed at the great expositions both in Japan and overseas
in his last decades. His diverse work encompassed the Shijo
and Rinpa schools, and the Chinese-inspired work of Ogawa
Haritsu (1663-1747). He introduced the technique of painting on
paper with lacquer to give an impression of richness and three-
dimensionality.