Light as a Butterfly 3

This Met x Wendover Art Group design is a reproduction of an original work of art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.

Various Moths and Butterflies

Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757–1820)

Part of an album of woodblock prints (surimono);

ink and color on paper; 7 3/4 x 7 3/16 in.; 19th century

H. O. Havemeyer Collection,

Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929    JP2356

This image belongs to a series of 19th-century woodblock prints depicting moths and butterflies by Kubo Shunman, a painter, author, poet, and printmaker celebrated for his elegant pictures in muted colors. After the 1790s, the artist focused his efforts onpaintings and surimono—privately published woodblock prints, usually commissioned by individual poets or poetry groups as a form of New Year’s greeting card.