Sparrows in a Plum Tree
A common topic in Japanese bird-and-flower painting, sparrows and blossoming plum branches evoke the beginning of spring, which according to the lunar calendar would begin in early February. Rosetsu fills the composition with a profusion of twigs that abruptly twist and turn. The calculated disorder of the plum branches finds its echo in the numerous sparrows, many of which the artist painted in slight variations of similar poses.
Birds or other animals that gaze straight towards the viewer, almost as if they wanted to enter into direct communication with the human observer (such as the pair of sparrows on the lowermost branch), are a visual strategy that Rosetsu employed in many of his paintings, for instance in the diptych of hanging scrolls of cranes, also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011.572.2a, b). The inclusion of a rose bush strikes one as unusual, as this flower is not a subject matter commonly found in early modern Japanese painting.
Birds or other animals that gaze straight towards the viewer, almost as if they wanted to enter into direct communication with the human observer (such as the pair of sparrows on the lowermost branch), are a visual strategy that Rosetsu employed in many of his paintings, for instance in the diptych of hanging scrolls of cranes, also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011.572.2a, b). The inclusion of a rose bush strikes one as unusual, as this flower is not a subject matter commonly found in early modern Japanese painting.
Artwork Details
- 梅雀図
- Title: Sparrows in a Plum Tree
- Artist: Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪 (Japanese, 1754–1799)
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: second half of the 1790s
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Image: 44 1/2 x 15 11/16 in. (113 x 39.8 cm)
Overall with mounting: 82 5/16 x 37 1/16 in. (209 x 94.1 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.500.9.54
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
More Artwork
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Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
1787–88
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
probably early 19th century
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
ca. 1794–95
Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
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Nagasawa Rosetsu 長澤蘆雪
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