Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting by the Nihonga artist Hasegawa Gyokuho. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Accession no.
- 36.100.16
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Hasegawa Gyokuho's untitled hanging scroll of 1850 depicts birds, flowers, and plants rendered in ink and color on silk.
Hasegawa Gyokuho's untitled hanging scroll of 1850 depicts birds, flowers, and plants rendered in ink and color on silk. The combination of avian and floral motifs within a single composition is characteristic of Japanese nature painting, where birds and blossoms function as paired symbols of seasonal change and the vitality of the natural world. Such pairings commonly evoke the transient beauty central to Japanese aesthetic traditions, with flowers signaling the season of depiction and birds animating the scene as living presences.
The work, held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, thus operates both as a descriptive study of flora and fauna and as a symbolic meditation on nature's fleeting cycles, presented in the vertical hanging-scroll format suited to intimate viewing.
Technique & Style
The work is a hanging scroll dating to 1850, painted in ink with polychrome washes on silk, a format customary for Japanese paintings of the period. Its support is silk, and the scroll would have been mounted and displayed hanging from a rod, a handling method typical of the medium. Executed by Hasegawa Gyokuho, the composition features birds, a flower and a plant, aligning with mid-19th-century Japanese bird-and-flower painting. The piece belongs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection and was created in Japan.
History & Provenance
Created in 1850 in Japan, this hanging scroll titled Untitled was executed by Hasegawa Gyokuho in ink and color on silk. The work depicts birds, flowers, and plants and is now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, catalogued as a hanging scroll among the museum's paintings. While its inception is firmly dated to the mid-19th century, the specific circumstances of its commission and its ownership chain prior to museum acquisition are not detailed in the available records, and no exhibition history is noted in the available sources.
Overview
This untitled hanging scroll, created around 1850 by Hasegawa Gyokuho, exemplifies traditional Japanese painting. Executed with ink and light colors on silk, the artwork presents a serene natural scene. It features delicate blossoms on a branch, accompanied by two small birds, one of which appears to be singing. The composition invites contemplation of the natural world.
Artist & collection
