{
"data": {
"id": 152492,
"accession_number": "1985.314",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mandarin Ducks and Flowering Plants, early or mid-1830s. Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797\u20131858). Color woodblock print; overall: 38.2 x 17.1 cm (15 1/16 x 6 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith, 1985.314",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Mandarin Ducks and Flowering Plants",
"creation_date": "early or mid-1830s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1830,
"creation_date_latest": 1837,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Japan, Edo period (1615\u20131868)"
],
"technique": "color woodblock print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Japanese Art",
"collection": "Japanese Art",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Overall: 38.2 x 17.1 cm (15 1/16 x 6 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.382,
"height_inch": 15,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.171,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signature: Hiroshige hitsu.\nArtist Seal: Ichiryusai.\nPublisher: Wakasaya Yoichi (Jakurindo).\nCensorship Seal: kiwame.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Collector's seal: Vever",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 310240,
"title": "A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection",
"description": "A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).",
"opening_date": "1988-09-14T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Year in Review 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art (1986).",
"opening_date": "1986-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Henri Vever [1854\u20131942], France",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1942",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby & Co., London, UK, March 26, 1975, lot 362)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "March 26, 1975",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(R. E. Lewis, Inc., California, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1975-?",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899-1998] given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1985",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1985-",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"295.1979"
],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In Asian painting, ducks are usually shown in pairs because a male and female mate for life. They symbolize fidelity and tranquility. The presence of another duck is suggested here by the gesture of the bird's head. Notice the variety of brushstrokes and ink tones used to depict the duck's plumage.
The bird and flower genre is a popular theme in the paintings and prints of the Kelvin Smith Collection. Kachoga, or bird and flower pictures, became popular among collectors in Japan during the 19th century, due in large part to Hiroshige. Although better known for his landscape prints, Hiroshige made several exceptional prints of birds, plants, and animals that reveal his keen observation of nature.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79937262"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1985.314-mandarin-ducks-and-f"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Sotheby's London. Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books and Drawings and Fan Paintings, from the Henri Vever Collection: Part II. March 26, 1975.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cunningham, Michael R. \u201cPainting the Poetry of the Natural World.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 279\u2013291.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 286-287, fig. 9",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25160039"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.314",
"images": {
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"width": "420",
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"creditline": "The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 152492,
"creators": [
{
"id": 50381,
"description": "Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797\u20131858)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": "\u6b4c\u5ddd \u5e83\u91cd",
"birth_year": "1797",
"death_year": "1858",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
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],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1985-12-18T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1830,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "early or mid-1830s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:53:29.133000"
}
}