Roses, Young Bird and a Butterfly 1877 - 1897

Editor: So here we have Watanabe Seitei’s "Roses, Young Bird and a Butterfly," made somewhere between 1877 and 1897. It’s a watercolor painting currently residing at the Met. It’s just…gentle. Almost ethereal, and the off-white background is really calming. What do you see when you look at this piece? Curator: Gentle is the word, isn't it? The artist is whispering secrets to us through those soft washes of color. The bird feels especially poignant - caught between awkward youth and the promise of flight. Does it not strike you as curious to place it beside such powerful symbols of transient beauty, namely the roses? Editor: I hadn't really thought about the bird that way. It felt like a standard nature study. Curator: But isn't that the magic? Seitei wasn’t just documenting nature, but creating these emotional resonances. Roses as stand-ins for life’s fleeting moments, the little bird wrestling with leaving the nest, and the butterfly off to the side! How perfectly situated. It lends the painting a wistful feel. And all done with such a deft hand! The more you look, the more little narratives bloom. Or fly. Editor: True, seeing them grouped all together that way tells a different story. I guess I initially focused on the technical skill and missed the… the quiet drama of it all. I also find the way it lacks depth, the almost two-dimensionality, adds to the calm feeling. Curator: It's a window, isn't it, to a quieter world. Thanks for lending your sharp eye and allowing me to look through it with you, together!