Birds in a Tree (c. 1700–1868): Art, History and Details

Birds in a Tree (c. 1700–1868) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This scene of two Chinese pheasants with a flowering plum tree (a sign of the arrival of spring in Japan) is not painted. All the lines and surfaces are created by colored threads carefully stitched together into the silk. Consequently, the surface appears quite different from paintings on paper.

Object facts

• Title: Birds in a Tree
• Date: c. 1700–1868
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Textile
• Technique: hanging scroll; silk gauze brocaded with gold and silk
• Dimensions: Overall: 169.5 x 47 cm (66 3/4 x 18 1/2 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1988.246

Collection credit

Gift of Donald J. Wineman in memory of his wife, Susan

Further reading listed by the museum

• "The Year in Review for 1988."€ The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 76, no. 2, 1989, pp. 30-75.

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.