Still Life – Gourd-shaped Sake Bottle and Mushrooms | Shibata Zeshin 柴田是 | 1807-1891

Shibata Zeshin was the greatest lacquer artist of the 19th century. His lacquer objects have been priceless treasures for a hundred years. He was the son of a sculptor and was apprenticed to a lacquer painter at an early age. But then he studied painting intensively with great masters in Kyoto. In 1890 he officially became a court painter. 

As a painter, Zeshin always made it clear that he was a master of urushi-e (lacquer painting). The sharp contrasts in the colors of his paintings are often reminiscent of lacquer techniques - and he often includes lacquer in his paintings.

In this still life, this influence can be felt in the pointed choice of colors: blue, turquoise, dark green combined with various shades of brown and an unusual, almost harsh use of white. The rhythm of the forms, the arrangement of a pumpkin-shaped sake bottle with mushrooms and an autumn grass, betrays the gifted designer of lacquer work.

The signature is flawless; the stamp he uses on this picture is relatively rare, but confirmed.