Puppies, Sparrows, and Chrysanthemums (c. 1792–94): Art, History and Details

Puppies, Sparrows, and Chrysanthemums (c. 1792–94) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese, 1754–1799).

The work and its context

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

These paintings were originally mounted as sliding doors (fusuma) used inside a building. The circular areas on the paintings’ paper surfaces are traces of the former positions of the door pulls (hikite). A flock of sparrows gathers on a trellis supporting flowering chrysanthemum. Below is a litter of puppies, some cavorting, others napping. The tender story created by the curious puppy peering up and tilting its head to listen to the bird’s insistent call in the leftmost part of the composition is characteristic of Nagasawa Rosetsu’s paintings, which often use animals to illustrate the human condition.

Object facts

• Title: Puppies, Sparrows, and Chrysanthemums
• Date: c. 1792–94
• Creator attribution: Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese, 1754–1799)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Fusuma panel remounted as a hanging scroll; ink and slight color on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 211.4 x 94 cm (83 1/4 x 37 in.); Painted surface: 167.6 x 91.5 cm (66 x 36 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1970.71.4

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1970.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 58, no. 2, 1971, pp. 22–71.

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.