The series is Hokusai's masterpiece in the genre of nature prints and is known as the 'Large Flowers'. Each print features a flower and an insect (amphibians were classified as insects). Hokusai was probably influenced and inspired by Utamaro's great trio of natural history books on the themes of insects, birds and shells, which may also have prompted the humour evident in this print, where the eye has to search to find the frog.

Provenance

Edwin Grabhorn, San Francisco (by 1960); Edwin and Irma Grabhorn (from 1963); Israel Goldman (2006).