Sparrows and Camellia in Snow (c. 1831-33): Artwork and History

Sparrows and Camellia in Snow (c. 1831-33) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797–1858.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Of the two versions of this design in the Art Institute's collection, this image is accepted as the earlier printing of this famous design. The poetry appearing on both impressions has been identified by the scholar Suzuki Juzo as the first two lines of an unsigned Chinese poem entitled “Inquiry of a Stork” by Hakurakuten (772–846). It reads: Crows and storks fight over something to eat and sparrows over where to sleep, You stand there all alone by the pond, the wind blows and snow piles up.

Object facts

• Title: Sparrows and Camellia in Snow
• Date: c. 1831-33
• Artist attribution: Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797–1858
• Place of origin: Japan
• Medium: Color woodblock print; ōtanzaku
• Dimensions: 38 × 17.3 cm (15 × 6 13/16 in.); Mat: 63.5 × 40.7 cm (25 × 16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Arts of Asia
• Reference number: 1932.208

Collection credit

Gift of H. R. Warner

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.