Basket of Peonies (1810 or 1814): Art, History and Details

Basket of Peonies (1810 or 1814) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A surimono is a privately commissioned print used to announce or commemorate a special event. This picture celebrates an event in the life of the actor Ichikawa Danjuro VII, whose emblem was the peony. According to Japanese tradition, the peony–one of the flowers of the four seasons–is the flower of summer.

Object facts

• Title: Basket of Peonies
• Date: 1810 or 1814
• Creator attribution: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print; surimono
• Dimensions: Sheet: 52.1 x 38.3 cm (20 1/2 x 15 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1943.5

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Ralph King

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.