Butterfly
- Date:
- c.1920
- Medium:
- Format:
- Oban
- Source:
- Victoria and Albert Museum
$500–$5,000. Common landscapes: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Collaborative prints with Frank Brangwyn are most sought after.
A butterfly rendered in Urushibara's refined color woodblock style, circa 1920. The butterfly is a subject with deep resonance in both European and Japanese visual culture: in the West, associated with transformation and transience; in Japan (kochō), linked to the Taoist tale of Zhuangzi and to images of feminine grace in bijin-ga. Urushibara's treatment almost certainly emphasizes the insect's structural beauty — the symmetry of wings, the fragility of antennae — with the precision that color woodblock printing uniquely enables.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Butterfly was created by Yoshijiro Urushibara (漆原木虫) in c.1920.
Butterfly depicts insects and animals.
