47
Artist
Sengai Gibon(Japanese, 1750–1837)Japanese, 1750–1837
Japanese
Lao-T'zu Riding an Ox
late 18th or early 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink on paper
Image: 31 1/8 × 10 15/16 in. (79.1 × 27.8 cm)
Scroll: 68 × 18 1/4 × 1 3/8 in. (172.7 × 46.4 × 3.5 cm)
Storage box: 20 3/8 × 3 7/8 × 3 3/4 in. (51.8 × 9.8 × 9.5 cm)
The Gitter-Yelen Collection, museum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund
2021.230
ProvenanceResearch Ongoing“This is the way. I always tread but I am completely lost just the same under the hazy moon.”1
Lao-T’zu was a semi-apocryphal Chinese sage who wrote the Tao Te Ching, the founding text of Taoism, and is traditionally shown atop his ox, which he rode westward to write his seminal work. Sengai’s treatment of the master is charming and verges on the comical, its humor enhanced with a pun in the inscription. The “Tao” of Taoism literally means “the way,” suggesting that the wise Lao-T’zu, despite his knowledge of his spiritual path, might still, like a regular traveler, find himself lost beneath the moon’s light. The gently satirical treatment of venerated figures is a common characteristic of many Zen portraits.
—Bradley Bailey