Sparrows and Camellia in Snow

Sparrows tumble around a camellia branch bowed under fresh snow — red blossoms, white weight, the birds the only urgency in the cold. Hiroshige's bird-and-flower prints were his lyric sideline, made in the same years as his great landscapes — and snow was his signature weather. The snow is mostly bare paper — the printer's restraint does the work of cold; the camellia's red is the sheet's one warmth. "Snow bends the branch. The blossom keeps its color."

Maker

Utagawa Hiroshige

Date

c. 1830s

Medium of the original

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Rights

Cleared for print

Catalogue number

PA-00377