Keigetsu Matsubayashi - Fruits (果物)
Keigetsu Matsubayashi - Fruits (果物)
| Artist | Keigetsu Matsubayashi (Japan, 1876-1963) |
| Year | Undated |
| Materials | Color on silk, hanging scroll |
| Size | (H)40.0cm, (W)49.4cm. |
| Framed Size | (H)143.0cm, (W)69.0cm. |
| Rarity | Unique |
| Medium | Painting |
| Signature | Signed Keigetsu Sanjin at the end of a two-line inscription, upper right, with a red seal below. Wood box also signed and sealed. |
| Condition and Authenticity | Foxing stains at top and lower right of the silk. Scroll mount with ivory roller ends in good order. Pigments stable, no flaking or tears. No separate certificate of authenticity is included; the work is accompanied by a wood box titled, signed and sealed by the artist, and an outer protective box. |
| Provenance | Auction in Japan |
| Frame | Mounted as a hanging scroll with ivory roller ends; overall good condition. |
Painted on silk by Keigetsu Matsubayashi, a leading master of modern Nanga (Japanese literati painting) and a recipient of the Order of Culture in 1958, this hanging scroll gathers the harvest of autumn into one composition: persimmons still on the branch, a large citron, a cluster of green grapes, a split chestnut burr, and peaches at the right, one of them opened and visited by a line of ants. The fruit is observed with quiet realism, each skin and surface given its own weight of color, while the branches and leaves are drawn with the free ink line of the literati tradition, so that observation and brushwork share a single surface. The ants crossing the lower right corner give the picture its time: the harvest is at its peak and has already begun to pass. A two-line inscription in the upper right is signed with the studio name Keigetsu Sanjin and stamped with a red seal below. The scroll is kept in a wood box titled, signed and sealed by the artist, which is itself housed in a second outer box, an unbroken chain of documentation linking the painting to the artist's own hand.