The Floating World
Peonies and Butterfly
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1833–34
What it is
A butterfly beats upwind over peonies in full blow — the blossoms bend hard on their stalks, petals and leaves streaming in the same gust.
Why it matters
Hokusai in his seventies, in the same years as the Fuji series, turned to flowers and gave them weather — these are not botanical studies but events.
What to notice
The butterfly flies against the wind that bends the flowers — one small will set against the whole current of the sheet.
"The wind is one. What lives in it answers differently."
The record
- Artist
- Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760–1849)
- Date
- c. 1833–34
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons · Poenies and butterfly.jpg
Impression note. Printings differ in the strength of the ground tone and in the petals' pinks, which are fugitive and fade before the blues; a fine impression keeps the leaf-veins' keyblock lines wiry and whole. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
More Katsushika Hokusai
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Red Fuji)Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Thunderstorm Beneath the SummitKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Kajikazawa in Kai ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.