Grasshopper and Butterfly
- Date:
- ca. 1920s
- 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 grasshopper and butterfly depicted together in a composition from the 1920s that draws on the Japanese tradition of insect study prints. Both insects are associated with summer in Japanese poetic tradition — the grasshopper (kirigirisu or batta) with the dry grasses of late summer, the butterfly with flowering meadows — and their pairing creates a study in contrasting form: the angular, camouflaged grasshopper against the symmetrical, colorful butterfly. Urushibara handles such natural history subjects with the same precision he brings to architectural views.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Grasshopper and Butterfly was created by Yoshijiro Urushibara (漆原木虫) in ca. 1920s.
Grasshopper and Butterfly depicts insects and animals.
