Puppies, Sparrows, and Chrysanthemums
1793
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1793
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Puppies, Sparrows, and Chrysanthemums is a 1793 unspecified by Nagasawa Rosetsu, a Nihonga work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a flock of sparrows perched on a bamboo trellis covered in chrysanthemums, with a litter of puppies playing and napping below. This painting was once part of sliding doors in a Japanese home. The small circles on the paper are marks from the door handles—details that remind you it was made to be used, not just looked at. The leftmost puppy tilts its head up, as if listening to the birds. To see more work like this, look up japan, edo period (1615–1868).
These paintings were originally mounted as sliding doors ( fusuma ) used inside a building. The circular areas on the paintings’ paper surfaces are traces of the former positions of the door pulls ( hikite ). A flock of sparrows gathers on a trellis supporting flowering chrysanthemum. Below is a litter of puppies, some cavorting, others napping. The tender story created by the curious puppy peering up and tilting its head to listen to the bird’s insistent call in the leftmost part of the composition is characteristic of Nagasawa Rosetsu’s paintings, which often use animals to illustrate the…
The round circular areas in the paintings' paper surfaces, each surrounded by a dark halo of embedded dirt and finger oils, indicate the location of the door "catches."
Read the full account in the museum source.
Nagasawa Rosetsu (長沢芦雪; 1754–1799) was a Japanese painter during the Edo period. A disciple of the Maruyama School, he was known for his versatile artistic style. He was born to the family of a low-ranking samurai. He…
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