SHIBATA ZESHIN: SURIMONO OF A MAGNOLIA BRANCH, CENSER, AND INCENSE ENVELOPE

By Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), signed Shibata Zeshin and sealed Tairyukyo
Japan, 19^th century

Haikai color woodblock print and blind stamping on paper. Obosho format. Signed Shibata Zeshin and sealed Tairyukyo to the lower right corner. Titled A Magnolia Branch, Censer, and Incense Envelope.

The right register depicting a magnolia branch with purple blossoms and green leaves borne on a stem next to a bronze koro (censer) on a red tray next to an incense envelope with kirigane decorations. Three rows of vertical text stretch from the center to the left edge.

SIZE of the sheet 44.5 x 58.2 cm

Condition: Good impression and vivid colors, light creasing, folding lines, some foxing, and minimal staining, overall presenting very well.
Provenance: Collection of Robert and Isabelle de Strycker. Inside the passepartout inscribed, ’Enveloppe contenant des pastilles de parfum. Koro (brule parfum) et branche Me Kulen (magnolia).’ Robert de Strycker (1903-1968) was a French engineer who specialized in metallurgy. He was a Stanford graduate, a professor at the University of Leuven, a director of the Institute of Metallurgy at the Université Catholique de Louvain, and one of the most influential members of the faculty of applied sciences. After World War II, he made large contributions to France’s post-war recovery. Robert and his wife Isabelle (1915-2010) first encountered Chinese art at the British Museum during a stay in London in the 1930s. Enamored with the style and beauty, they both decided to study and collect Japanese and Chinese works of art. In 1938 they eventually began to build their collection, buying from Belgian, Parisian, and English dealers. They kept close contact with the famous English collector Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977) and noted Czech collector and expert Fritz Low-Beer (1906-1976). In 1964, the couple lent 174 objects from their collection to the Belgian city of Leuven’s museum for an exhibition titled Oude kunst in Leuvens Privébezit (‘Old Art in Private Collections in Leuven’), and in 1967 they lent around thirty Japanese objects to the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels for their exhibition Kunst van Japan im belgischen Privatverzameingen (‘Japanese Art in Belgian Private Collections’).

Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) was a Japanese painter, lacquer artist, and printmaker of the late Edo period to early Meiji era. He has been called ‘Japan's greatest lacquerer.’ His work, unlike the oils being used by so many of his contemporaries, never need re-touching and never faded. He was a master of emulating oil or ink painting with lacquer and combined groundbreaking techniques with traditional subjects. His studio was situated on the bank of a river, providing him with ample opportunity to observe nature, and the creatures that inhabited the natural world. Like many painters of the 19th century, he was eclectic in his sources and would have been exposed to traditional styles. However, Zeshin's skill level was such that he could fluidly mix techniques, ideas, and stylistic options, thus painting part of a composition in one manner and including elements of another to add variety and dynamics unheard of at the time.

Museum comparison:
Compare a related surimono with two rows of vertical inscription and a hat and bundle printed on the lower right-hand corner, by Shibata Zeshin, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession number M.79.152.291. Compare a related surimono with three rows of vertical inscription with a monumental rock surrounded by foliage on the right-hand register, by Shibata Zeshin, in the British Museum, accession number 2021,3013.322.