Butterflies

Five butterflies of varying size are scattered across a plain cream-colored paper ground, with no landscape or setting depicted. The largest, at center, has elongated, curving dark gray-brown wings marked with patches of teal blue and pale beige; the others are smaller, in mustard yellow, pale gray with dark spots, and solid gray-mauve tones, each shown with slender curled antennae. Columns of cursive Japanese script occupy the upper left, with a small red seal in the lower right; this is a print from an album of surimono (woodblock prints with ink and color on paper), titled Butterflies, by Kubo Shunman, 1800.