Autumn Grasses in Moonlight

A two-panel folding screen shows dark ink foliage, vines and tall grasses set against gold-leaf ground. On the right panel a large pale moon rises behind slender stalks, while the left panel carries trailing vines and leaves in soft, scattered strokes.

Look closer: Small sprays of pale flowers and buds appear among the vines on the left panel.

Artist

Shibata Zeshin

Date

second half of the 19th century

Medium

Two-panel folding screen; ink, lacquer, silver, and silver leaf on paper

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2000 × 787 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975