Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting by the Impressionist artist Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎. It dates from 1888 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Created in 1888, this small album leaf by Kawanabe Kyōsai is executed on silk with ink and color.
- Accession no.
- 14.76.61.9
- Credit line
- Charles Stewart Smith Collection, Gift of Mrs. Charles Stewart Smith, Charles Stewart Smith Jr., and Howard Caswell Smith, in memory of Charles Stewart Smith, 1914
About this work
The monkey’s pose mocks the stiff formality of officials, Kyōsai often used animals to poke fun at human habits.
This small silk painting shows a monkey in a red vest, holding a fan and bowing like a courtier.
Kyōsai painted it in 1888, when Japan was opening to the West. The monkey’s pose mocks the stiff formality of officials, Kyōsai often used animals to poke fun at human habits. The fan is blank; the joke is in the gesture, not the words.
If you like this playful style, look up more works in the subject monkeys.
Subject & Meaning
The album leaf by Kawanabe Kyōsai is classified as an allegory and depicts a monkey. Rendered in ink and color on silk, the work uses the animal as its central subject, fitting within a tradition of Japanese allegorical imagery in which the monkey carries layered symbolic meaning. As an untitled piece, it invites interpretation through the figure itself rather than through an explicit theme, with the monkey serving as the visual and conceptual focus of the composition.
Technique & Style
Created in 1888, this album leaf by Kawanabe Kyōsai features an allegorical depiction of a monkey. The artist executed the work using ink and color applied directly onto a silk support. Measuring 36.2 cm in height and 27.6 cm in width, the piece exemplifies the painter's engagement with traditional Japanese materials and formats during the late nineteenth century.
History & Provenance
Created in 1888 in Japan, this album leaf was executed by Kawanabe Kyōsai using ink and color on silk. The work, which depicts a monkey, entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is currently held. No further details regarding its commission or intermediate ownership history are provided in the available records.
Overview
Created in 1888, this small album leaf by Kawanabe Kyōsai is executed on silk with ink and color. The composition features a single monkey dressed in a vivid red vest, holding a fan and bowing in a manner reminiscent of a court official. The work measures only a few centimeters across, typical of the intimate album format popular in late‑19th‑century Japan.
Context
Kyōsai worked at a time of cultural upheaval, as the Meiji government promoted modernization while traditional arts persisted. His penchant for caricature allowed him to comment on the tensions between old courtly etiquette and the new bureaucratic order. This work exemplifies how artists of the era used familiar motifs, such as monkeys, to critique contemporary social dynamics without overt political confrontation.
Artist & collection
Artist
Kawanabe Kyōsai (河鍋 暁斎; May 18, 1831 – April 26, 1889) was a Japanese painter and caricaturist. In the words of art historian Timothy Clark, "an individualist and an independent, perhaps the last virtuoso in traditional Japanese painting".
