Bairei Picture Album of One Hundred Birds (Bairei hyakuchō gafu 楳嶺百鳥畫譜) : [volume 2]

Kōno, Bairei, 1844-1895 · 1884 · Japan : [producer not identified] · 16 pictures

A Meiji-era Japanese woodblock picture album of birds by the painter Kōno Bairei (1844-1895), published in 1884 as the second volume of a hundred-bird series, meant for artists and students copying bird studies. Its double-page spreads show birds perched among blossoming branches, leaves, grasses and rocks in sparse ink outlines with light tinting. A designer could draw on the economical linework, the asymmetric placement of single birds against negative space, and the way flowering sprays frame the subject.

Birds in art · Plants in art · Flowers in art

Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art · No known copyright restrictions · More from this library