The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection
At The Met Fifth Avenue
February 27, 2018–January 21, 2019
Lavishly illustrated, this beautiful publication showcases the unique interdependence of poetry and art in the Japanese tradition.
Buy NowPainting blossomed in Japan during the Edo period (1615–1868) as artists daringly experimented with conventional styles. In this exhibition, more than forty examples of Edo-period paintings from the collection of Estelle P. Bender and her late husband T. Richard Fishbein—mostly gifts and promised gifts to The Met—help trace the development of the major schools and movements of this fascinating era. Contemporary Japanese ceramics are juxtaposed with Edo-period paintings, while works in various formats and media from The Met collection provide context. The celebration of the natural world serves as a unifying theme, and the intertwined relationship between poetry and the pictorial arts—so fundamental to Japanese tradition—is a particular focus of the exhibition.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
The exhibition and catalogue are made possible by the Bender-Fishbein-Goodman Family.
Mori Sosen (Japanese, 1747–1821). Stag amid Autumn Flowers, late 18th–early 19th century. Japanese, Edo period (1615–1868). Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, 40 3/8 x 15 1/16 in. (102.5 x 38.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fishbein-Bender Collection, Promised Gift of T. Richard Fishbein and Estelle P. Bender
