Birds
late 19th century
Medium
Fan painting mounted as album leaf; tempera on paper
Dimensions
Overall: 13 x 23 5/8 in. (33 x 60 cm) Image: 7 x 20 7/8 in. (17.8 x 53 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Culture & Period
Japan · Meiji period (1868–1912)
Department
Asian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Gifts, Bequests, and Funds from various donors, by exchange, 1952
Accession Number
52.160.6d
Tags
Art Historical Context
Shibata Zeshin's *Birds*, created in the late 19 century during Japan's Meiji period (186–1912), captures the grace of avian life in a delicate fan painting, later mounted as an album leaf. Zeshin (1807–1891), a virtuoso of Japanese lacquer art and painting, bridged traditional Edo-period aesthetics with Meiji-era innovations. Renowned for his *urushi-e* (lacquer paintings) that mimicked sumi ink's fluidity, he often drew from nature, using birds as symbols of harmony and seasonal change in East Asian art. Painted in tempera on paper—a medium allowing vibrant, opaque colors and fine detail—th...
About the Artist
Shibata Zeshin · 1807–1891
Japanese, 1807–1891