Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink painting by the Baroque artist Suga Mitsusada. It dates from 1772 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
This hanging scroll by Suga Mitsusada is classified as a genre scene depicting a woman and a musical instrument.
This hanging scroll by Suga Mitsusada is classified as a genre scene depicting a woman and a musical instrument. The pairing of a female figure with a musical instrument is a longstanding convention in Japanese painting, where such attributes typically signal themes of refined leisure, performance, or the cultivation of artistic accomplishment among women. The work's silk support and ink-and-color handling align it with the pictorial traditions in which these iconographic elements carried symbolic weight, presenting the subject as an idealized participant in elegant pastimes rather than as a specific identifiable individual.
The musical instrument serves as the principal symbolic attribute, framing the woman as a performer or appreciator of music, while her presence anchors the scene within the everyday cultural life that genre painting sought to record.
Technique & Style
The work is executed as a hanging scroll using ink and polychrome pigments on silk, a format typical of traditional Japanese paintings. Its medium combines drawn line work with applied color, supporting a genre scene that features a woman accompanied by a musical instrument. The composition is balanced within the narrow vertical format, emphasizing the figure and instrument against the silk support.
The painting was created in Japan in 1772 and measures 101.6 cm in height by 30.9 cm in width, reflecting the material practices of the period.
History & Provenance
The hanging scroll titled Untitled by Suga Mitsusada, created in 1772, is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work, which depicts a woman with a musical instrument, is classified under the museum's paintings department. While the specific accession or inventory number is not provided in the available records, the museum lists the piece within its holdings of Japanese art. The artwork was created in Japan and measures 101.6 cm in height by 30.9 cm in width.
No specific exhibition history is documented in the provided sources for this particular work.
Context
Untitled (1772) is a hanging scroll in ink and color on silk, measuring 101.6 × 30.9 cm, created in Japan and classified as a genre scene. The painting portrays a musical instrument alongside a woman, a motif that recurs in the artist’s output. It entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is studied as an example of Edo‑period genre painting that integrates musical iconography into everyday subjects.
Contemporary scholarship situates the work within the broader tradition of Japanese genre painters, emphasizing its role in illustrating how music was visualized in the visual culture of the era.
Overview
Suga Mitsusada created this untitled hanging scroll in 1772, using ink and color on silk. The painting presents a genre scene, focusing on a solitary woman engaged in playing a musical instrument. Her red robe and the soft light behind a bamboo screen suggest an intimate setting. The work exemplifies 18th-century Japanese painting traditions.
Artist & collection
