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Cuckoo Flying Past Mast in Rain

Cuckoo Flying Past Mast in Rain

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Utagawa Toyohiro

Flower and bird pictures, which have a long tradition in Chinese and traditional Japanese painting and poetry, were first made the subject of prints in the late eighteenth century by such artists as Isoda Koryusai and Kitagawa Utamaro. As flying geese are linked poetically with autumn, the flying cuckoo is associated with the arrival of summer. The flying cuckoo is regularly paired with boat masts in the work of Toyohiro’s student Hiroshige. The standardized depiction of a single bird with outstretched wings and arched back makes the cuckoo easily identifiable in prints. Toyohiro’s composition includes only the highest points of the masts with little indication of the boats moored below. The diagonal lines cutting through the background represent the driving rain.
Artist
Utagawa Toyohiro
(Japanese, 1773 - 1828)
Title
Cuckoo Flying Past Mast in Rain
Date
ca. 1810-1820
Medium
Color woodcut
Dimensions
225 x 164 mm Overall
Credit
Bequest of John H. Van Vleck
Accession No.
1980.3140
Classification
Prints
Geography
Japan

Related

1918, purchased from Ito (Chicago, IL) by Edward Burr Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 1943, passed through inheritance to Edward’s son, John H. Van Vleck (Madison, WI); 9 January 1980, bequeathed by John H. Van Vleck to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Mueller, Laura. "Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School." Leiden, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2007. p. 86, no. 41

  • Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 : Chazen Museum of Art, 3/21/2008–6/15/2008
  • Competition and Collaboration: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School: Chazen Museum of Art, 11/3/2007–1/6/2008

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