Boat under the Moon

Nagasawa Roshū 長澤蘆洲

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A turbulent sea, a rocky foreground, and layers of fin-shaped mountains receding into the background are the principal pictorial elements of this painting. A boatman poles his vessel past the dangerous current and foreground rocks. Roshū, student and adopted son of the renowned and individualistic artist Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), whose works are exhibited nearby, demonstrates his skill with the brush as well as a sense of drama, perhaps encouraged by his untrammeled teacher. Roshū was an artist in the refined Maruyama-Shijō tradition, to which his adoptive father had initially belonged but later renounced; this painting contains only hints of Rosetsu’s vigorous and dynamic mature style.

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