『画本虫撰』「蛙」「こかねむし」|Frog (Kaeru); Gold Beetle (Kogane mushi), from the Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (Ehon mushi erami)
1788
ink
paper
From the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art
About the artist
1788
ink
paper
From the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art
『画本虫撰』「蛙」「こかねむし」|Frog (Kaeru); Gold Beetle (Kogane mushi), from the Picture Book of Crawling Creatures (Ehon mushi erami) is a 1788 ink by Kitagawa Utamaro, a Romanticism work, depicting Frog, held at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This image shows two simple but detailed scenes. On the left, a giant lily pad floats on water covered in tiny round rocks. A small frog clings to its underside. On the right, a beetle sits on a flat surface, surrounded by more rocks. Both images use soft colors—greens, browns, and muted yellows—with clean lines. The frog and beetle are drawn with quiet precision, almost like they’re posed for a study. The text beside them looks like handwritten notes, maybe explaining their names or habits. If you like how these creatures are shown, look into cross-hatching next—it’s a drawing technique that creates texture with layers of lines.
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