A Butterfly Okimono

#Ittousai #lacquer #driftwood #okimono #butterfly

This work could be classified as a lacquer work or a sculpture.

The downloadable image does not show that the butterfly worked in bronze is perched on a piece of driftwood that has been carefully lacquered to preserve it and enhance the bronzework by contrast.

Its an early 20th century work!

Our butterfly series continues next week Join Me then! 

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Butterflies - Hiroshige

#butterflies and #peonies #hiroshige #ukiyo-e

that orange streak is not a stain its a stylized representation of morning mist

Butterflies - Utamaro

#Utamaro #ukiyo-e #butterflies #book

While Utamaro is well known for his bijinga he also created illustrations for books.

Whoever carved the plate for the print seems to have split Utamaros drawing in half but fortunately the actual print producers who inked and colored and made the print for the pages did a good job with the final trim and his insects and flowers are as elegant as his other beauties.

Butterflies - Zhu Rui Ning

#zhuruining #qingdynasty #chinesepainting #butterflies

Another Qing dynasty Painter who depicted butterflies with exquisite mastery of color and line was Zhu Rui Ning

Notice the careful balance of colors and tones. I suspect there's just a little indigo mixed in with the ink for the grasses and likewise a little ink with the green of the leaves.

Chinese Art and BUGS

The Chinese were probably the first printmakers to feature butterflies moths and other insects on woodblock prints even before the Japanese!

More images from this subgenre of "birds and flowers" to come !

Change of Theme coming! Butterflies

I'm expanding shifting and changing the Year of the Bird theme towards Flight and Flying and then Butterflies perhaps. So watch for new themes!

Most of the best Butterfly ceramics prints and paintings seem to date to the Qing dynasty?

This pair of double gourd shape vases are "famillerose" overglaze enamels form the Qing dynasty.

I am wondering if the overglazes developed during that dynasty allowing polychrome with richer colors plus the popularity and spread of  "how to paint" huapu books of examples are interrelated?