Page 42 - September 21 2021 Important Japanese Art Christie's NYC

PROPERTY FROM A PRINCELY COLLECTION
20 SHIBATA ZESHIN (1807-1891)

Landscapes, plants and animals
of four seasons

Each signed Zeshin, sealed Koma, Zeshin, Shin
or Tairyukyo
Twelve paintings for an accordion album;
lacquer on paper or lacquer and gold leaf on
paper
7¬ x 6¬ in. (19.5 x 16.8 cm.) each approx.
With a wood box authenticated by Umezawa
Ryushin (1874-1952), the youngest of Zeshin's
three sons, and by Ayaoka Yushin (1846-1910),
one of Zeshin's students (12)

$120,000-170,000

PROVENANCE:
Previously sold in these Rooms, 18 September 2015, lot 690
Suzuki Toshiyuki (1838-1914), Tokyo

Zeshin was a virtuoso technician: he developed the technique of For an album of high quality with eight lacquer paintings
using lacquer as a painting medium which gives an impression of circa 1880-90 of the same size on loan to the San Antonio
of richness and three-dimensionality. Painting with lacquer, Museum of Art from the Edson Collection, see The Art of
a viscous and sticky substance, was extremely difficult. The Shibata Zeshin Featuring the Edson Collection, ed. Nikkei (Tokyo:
artist’s patience and skill in recreating delicate details is almost Nikkei, Inc., 2009), no. E 53; and Sebastian Izzard, Zeshin: The
unimaginable. Catherine and Thomas Edson Collection (San Antonio: The San
Antonio Museum of Art, 2007), pl. 46. Izzard speculates that
These twelve lacquer paintings of landscapes, plant and animal
the Edson album also was issued as an unbound set.
studies are small masterpieces. They were issued as an unbound
set for an album, and appear close in date, quality and style to The former owner, Suzuki Toshiyuki (1838-1914) was a
the album with lacquer paintings in the Imperial Household powerful banker in the Meiji period and one of the founding
Collection, purchased in 1881 at the National Industrial members of the Imperial Bank of Commerce in 1894. He also
Exposition (see Ann Yonemura, intro., Twelve Centuries of served as committee member of the Japan Fine Arts Association
Japanese Art from the Imperial Collections [Washington, DC: Freer (Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai).
Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1997], pl. 56).