Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting by the Romanticist artist Shibata Zeshin. It dates from 1849 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Zeshin's choice to render this subject in ink and color on paper elevates the humble figure, inviting contemplation of transience and representation.
The work depicts a doll, presented as a genre scene on a tanzaku, a narrow, vertical format traditionally used for poetry. In the context of 1849 Japan, dolls carried layered significance: they could serve as objects of play, ritual substitutes, or symbols of human presence and impermanence. Zeshin's choice to render this subject in ink and color on paper elevates the humble figure, inviting contemplation of transience and representation.
The doll becomes a meditation on the human form reduced to essential lines, bridging the decorative and the philosophical.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in ink and color on paper, classified as a painting. Its support is a tanzaku, the narrow vertical paper format traditionally used for short poetic inscriptions. The composition is a genre scene depicting a doll, rendered in the painterly handling associated with Shibata Zeshin's mid-nineteenth-century practice.
The piece measures 35.6 cm in height by 6.4 cm in width, a slender proportion consistent with the tanzaku format. It was produced in Japan in 1849 and is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
History & Provenance
The work was created by Shibata Zeshin in 1849, as recorded by both internal documentation and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Wikidata entry. It is a vertical-format painting on tanzaku paper, measuring 35.6 cm in height and 6.4 cm in width, executed in ink and color. The subject depicted is a doll, aligning with the genre of ukiyo-e prints and paintings often produced during the Edo period. The painting belongs to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is currently held.
The work is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is cataloged as a painting by Shibata Zeshin created in 1849. The piece, an ink and color on paper tanzaku depicting a doll, measures 35.6 cm in height and 6.4 cm in width.
No specific accession number or exhibition history is provided in the available records.
Overview
Created in 1849, this small vertical paper work by Shibata Zeshin presents a quiet genre scene. Rendered on a tanzaku, a narrow strip traditionally used for poetry, the composition features two standing wooden figures rendered in muted reds and blues.
Artist & collection
