Autumn Grasses

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gardens planted to evoke deserted fields of autumn wildflowers inspired poets and artists in many media: painting, ceramics, lacquer, and textiles. Eulalia and Japanese bush clover were the most appreciated of the autumn plants for their appearance of wildness and abundance when waving in the wind, as well as for their suggestion of melancholy when withered. Many screens similar to this pair have been attributed to the Hasegawa school, founded by Hasegawa Tōhaku (1539–1610). The highly dramatic depiction of the grasses—with their rhythmic arrangement into clumps and sharp angling at the bottom to hint at a recession into space—suggests that the screens were produced by a Hasegawa painter in the first half of the seventeenth century. To create their signature mode of representation, Hasegawa artists made determined efforts to assimilate all available techniques of painting, from the famed Tosa-school style to methods used by artists employed by ready-to-sell painting shops. They and their patrons especially favored the subject of autumn grasses.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art