Accession Number
2011/2.37

Title
Cho, shojo to soshite hana (Butterfly, Girl and Flowers)

Artist(s)
Nakayama Tadashi

Object Creation Date
1977

Medium & Support
color woodblock print on paper

Dimensions
17 3/4 in. x 22 3/4 in. ( 45.09 cm x 57.79 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of Sheila and Ronnie Cresswell

Subject matter
Nakayama’s works can be divided into three periods; the first (early) period from 1955-1964, the second (middle) period from 1965-1968, and the third (late) period from 1969 to his last painting. In the first period, the common theme is horses. Moreover, he began experimenting with portraying girls, although the girls aren’t as developed and controlled as in later periods. He began portraying butterflies of different colors and sizes, he experimented with architecture, and he painted in most brown and green shades. The second period, he developed a new theme where he started portraying the horses with flowers, mostly pansies and poppies, and butterflies. The background colors also became lighter than in the first period. During this period he became more comfortable and controlled with his work; there is greater depth and motion on the page. In the third period, the subject of the prints mostly portrays a girl and he starts to use more complicated patterns and colors. He also gained a greater mastery over showing perspective.

Physical Description
A girl with her head and body in profile, her black hair is highlighted with white and blue stripes, with white, blue orange, and red columns of dots, and orange, green, yellow, and black abstract curved designs. She is wearing a gold sweater. The background is broken into four squares, two silver, two gold with butterfly wings in each section. The top left section of the butterfly wings alternate between different shades of light and dark red, orange, yellow, and blue with rows of dots decorating it. The bottom left section of the wing is black with a darker teardrop shape in the center and its bottom border is curved like waves. The top right section of the wing is silver with a short row of white dots near the center of the wing. The bottom right section of the wing is blue with a purple and white teardrop shape in the center and its bottom border is curved like waves, with small white dots along the boarder. At the bottom of the print is a group of flowers.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Primary Object Type
color print

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
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Keywords
color prints (prints)
flowers (plant components)
girls
profiles (figures)