Playful Elephants from India
- Date:
- 1863
- Medium:
- Woodblock Print
- Image courtesy of
- Artsy
Description
Two large grey elephants dominate the composition, sprawled on their backs with legs and trunks splayed while small figures in red and blue robes clamber over and around them, tugging ropes, brandishing sticks, and performing acrobatic poses. Additional vignettes fill the margins — a striped tiger, a miniature torii gate, a fan-wielding figure beneath a large patterned umbrella, and a tree hung with orange persimmons on the right edge, all set against a plain beige background with vertical columns of Japanese text framing the scene. The palette is muted — grey, beige, and cream — punctuated by bright red, blue, and orange accents, giving the print an energetic, crowded, playful mood consistent with its 1863 title, "Playful Elephants from India," by Kawanabe Kyosai.
More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai
Tenpôzan in Osaka: Viewing Children's Sumo (Naniwa Tenpôzan kodomo sumô shôran), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô
1863
Woodblock print
Kyosai, Royal Academy, London, FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING
2022
Original Museum Lithographic Exhibition Poster
from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print
Gontazaka, from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho no uchi
Woodblock print
Frequently Asked Questions
Playful Elephants from India was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎) in 1863.