Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
In this work, Nagasawa Rosetsu carefully described two snails in a manner known as “earth painting” (doro-e), building up colors mixed with crushed white shells in emulation of the thick brushstrokes of oil paint seen in European painting. A silvery metallic pigment indicates the snails’ trails, glistening along an earthen wall. Notably, one trail has no snail, leaving the viewer to guess why.
Inscriptions
Inscription: 平安蘆雪; Inscription transliteration: Heian Rosetsu; Sealed: 魚; Seal transliteration: Gyo
Provenance
?–1998: (James J. Freeman, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1998–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Animals in Japanese Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-December 10, 2023).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese, 1754–1799)
- Date
- c. 1788–89
- Medium
- Hanging scroll; ink, color, and metallic pigments on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 114.3 x 40.6 cm (45 x 16 in.); Overall: 200.7 x 54 cm (79 x 21 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1998.5
More by Nagasawa Rosetsu in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009828
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