THE MET X RHINOSHIELD

Clara Peeters (Flemish, ca. 1587–after 1636) was a founding figure in the history of European still life, a genre that attracted many women artists who did not have the opportunity to study nude models. In this ambitious composition titled A Bouquet of Flowers (ca. 1612), Peeters paid close attention to naturalistic details like dewdrops, insect bites, and drooping tulips that hint at transience and decay. At the same time, she asserted her own achievement by inscribing her signature in the stone ledge, juxtaposed with a fallen sprig of forget-me-nots. The crisp edges and acute observation that characterize her work reveal the close link between floral painting and botanical illustration during the Scientific Revolution.

Registered in 1883 and printed around 1917–23, Strawberry Thief is one of William Morris's (British, 1834–1896) most iconic creations. The inspiration for this kaleidoscopic textile in The Met collection was derived from the designer's country home, Kelmscott Manor, where a community of thieving thrushes would pluck the strawberries from his garden.

William Morris (British, 1834–1896) designed 41 wallpapers and five ceiling papers, working from 1862 with Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company, and from 1875 with Morris & Company. First produced in 1872, Jasmine uses three shades of green, enhanced with yellow and brown. A pattern of hawthorn leaves, blossoms, and branches is organized around a disguised vertical meander and elaborated with scrolling jasmine. The company also offered a variant of the pattern with yellow leaves and a pale green ground.

William Morris (British, 1834–1896) designed 41 wallpapers and five ceiling papers, working from 1862 with Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company, and from 1875 with Morris & Company. The Met's Willow Bough, a block-printed wallpaper design from 1887, proved to be one of his most enduring patterns, with its interlaced green willow leaves and brown stems over a cream ground.

This poetic depiction of a star-streaked sky was painted around 1905–8 by Henri-Edmond Cross (Henri-Edmond Delacroix) (French, 1856–1910). It combines the long, broken brushstrokes of Cross's late works with a murky landscape of pen and ink, reminiscent in its impressionistic forms of Japanese painting.

Claude Monet’s (French, 1840–1926) Morning on the Seine near Giverny (1897), now in The Met collection, belongs to a larger series which he called Mornings on the Seine. Having patiently scouted out views along the river, Monet then painted the pictures from a boat that he had converted into a floating studio. For an extended period he rose by dawn in order to paint the changing effects of light as the sun came up. He then lined up the canvases on easels in his studio to complete them together as a series.

In 1893, the painter and passionate horticulturist Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926) purchased a plot of land with a pond near his home in Giverny. With the intention of transforming the acquisition into something "for the pleasure of the eye and also for motifs to paint," he built his famous water-lily garden. The Met's Water Lilies (1919) is one of the celebrated Impressionist artist's later works, which one of his critics described as portraying waterlilies "in full flower assert[ing] themselves … their golden discs encased in purple, against the cloudy waters."

In this woodblock print from 1857 by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858), a cat sits by a latticed window of a brothel located near the Shin-Yoshiwara pleasure quarters in eastern Edo (now Tokyo). With Mount Fuji towering over the horizon, crowds of people make their way to Washi Daimyōjin (Ōtori) Shrine to participate in the Torinomachi Festival, which was celebrated on the two (or sometimes three) days of the rooster in the eleventh month of the lunar calendar. In the lower left of the room is a set of rake-shaped hairpins that we may imagine were likely trinkets bought at the festival by a male client for a courtesan. In premodern times, the Yoshiwara was open to everyone on Torinomachi festival days, which were especially busy for the denizens of the demimonde.

In the Japanese landscape painting tradition, a bright red orb represents the rising sun, especially of the New Year. A scroll such as The Met's Rising Sun (second half of the 19th century) by Shibata Zeshin (Japanese, 1807–1891) would have been suitable for a display alcove (tokonoma) in the spring season. Zeshin is known to have created several compositions on this theme.

This serene woodblock print from around 1830–32 belongs to Katsushika Hokusai's (Japanese, 1760–1849) famous series titled Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. The aizuri technique that Hokusai employed by using various shades of blue combines undulating hills, soft clouds, and placid waters to create an image of great tranquillity. Entirely devoid of human references, this print reveals the timeless quality of the Japanese landscape surrounding Fuji.

The origins of blue-and-white ware in Vietnam remain obscure; however, the addition of this type of ceramic to the repertory is often linked to the brief Chinese occupation of the early 15th century. The design of peonies in the center of this 15th-century Vietnamese dish, and the way in which the peonies are painted, reflect an awareness of earlier Chinese traditions. Vietnamese potters, who continued 14th-century Chinese styles well into the 16th century, often competed for markets, particularly those in Southeast Asia, with the kilns at Jingdezhen.

White porcelain painted with cobalt blue, a style that first flourished in China in the 14th century, is arguably the most important development in the history of ceramics. This Chinese dish in The Met collection features a central decoration of a dragon amid waves, and bears the mark of the Xuande period (1426–35) of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).