Mandarin Ducks and Flowering Plants

Utagawa Hiroshige

Cleveland Museum of Art

The image depicts a woodblock print of two mandarin ducks floating on water, surrounded by flowering plants. The ducks are colored white, orange, and yellow with black markings. The duck in the foreground is mostly white with orange feathers around its neck and a black eye and beak. The duck behind it is smaller and has a brown and white body with a black and orange beak. The ducks are floating on blue waves. Above the ducks, there are flowering plants with green leaves, blue flowers, and an orange fruit. There are several Japanese characters written vertically on the left side of the image and two red seals, one on the bottom right and one on the top left. The background of the image is beige.