Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting by the Impressionist artist Kano Sosen Narinobu. It dates from 1874 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Created in 1874 by Kano Sosen Narinobu, this diptych of hanging scrolls executed in ink on silk depicts a goose.
Created in 1874 by Kano Sosen Narinobu, this diptych of hanging scrolls executed in ink on silk depicts a goose. The work is classified within the landscape genre, focusing its iconography on this specific avian subject. As a piece from the Japanese tradition housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the imagery centers entirely on the naturalistic representation of the bird, without additional symbolic elements or narrative contexts detailed in available records.
Technique & Style
The work is executed as a diptych of hanging scrolls painted in ink on silk, a format typical of Nihonga practice in late nineteenth-century Japan. The composition depicts a goose within a minimal, unmodulated setting that privileges flat expanses of ink over atmospheric recession. Handling emphasizes controlled, fluid brushwork with areas of graded tone to articulate plumage and posture.
The silk support remains taut and even, with no evidence of planar distortions or flaking in the ink layer.
Dimensions recorded for the left scroll are 102.6 cm in height and 31.8 cm in width; the right scroll carries the same dimensions.
History & Provenance
The diptych of hanging scrolls titled Untitled was created in 1874 by the Japanese artist Kano Sosen Narinobu. Executed in ink on silk, the work depicts a goose and originates from Japan. The piece is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The diptych Untitled (1874) by Kano Sosen Narinobu, classified as a landscape painting of a goose, is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it is catalogued within the museum’s Japanese painting collection. It is recorded as a diptych of hanging scrolls, ink on silk, and its accession number is not disclosed in the available catalogue entries.
No exhibition history is recorded in the cited documentation, and the work has not been included in any listed exhibitions within the provided sources.
Overview
Created in 1874, this diptych of hanging scrolls by Kano Sosen Narinobu depicts a pair of geese on a riverbank, rendered in ink on silk. The composition features one goose bending to drink while the other gazes upward, capturing a moment of quiet natural observation. Sosen employs a delicate brushwork technique where the ink is applied so lightly that the texture of the silk support remains visible, emphasizing the ethereal quality of the scene.
As a member of the Kano school, which had served the shogunate for centuries, Sosen worked during a period when the traditional style faced decline due to shifting political and cultural landscapes in late Edo and early Meiji Japan. This work exemplifies his commitment to preserving the classical ink painting tradition, maintaining the school's aesthetic principles even as the world around him modernized. The piece stands as a testament to the endurance of the Kano lineage, bridging the gap between the feudal past and the emerging modern era through its adherence to established compositional forms and refined execution.
Context
The Kano school of painting, to which Narinobu belonged, had historically served as official artists to the shogunate for centuries. However, by the 1800s, this established style faced declining prominence amidst Japan's rapid modernization. Narinobu's continued practice of traditional ink painting, as seen in Untitled, demonstrates an effort to preserve and adapt these venerable artistic customs during an era of profound societal and cultural change.
Artist & collection
Artist
Kano Sosen Narinobu was a Japanese painter of the Kano school, the hereditary lineage of professional painters that dominated Japanese art from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century and supplied official artists to the shogunate and…
