hanging scroll;
painting
- Museum number
- 1881,1210,0.2286
- Description
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Painting, hanging scroll. Two deer, stag and hind, standing in field and eating plants and grass. Ink and colour on silk with ivory jikusaki. Signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1789-1794
- Dimensions
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Height: 142 centimetres (mount)
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Height: 55.30 centimetres
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Width: 59.50 centimetres (mount)
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Width: 42.40 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Hizo Nihon bijutsu taikan Vol 3
Mori Sosen (1747-1821), who was active in the Osaka area, did many paintings of animals based on sketches from life and was especially known for his pictures of monkeys, deer being his next favorite theme. With its stag and hind treated in a mild, amiable manner, this is a pleasing small work, though compared with the same artist's pictures of monkeys there is a suspicion of immature awkwardness in the handling of the fur and the observation of the deer's behavior. It seems likely that Sosen would go on earnestly painting a single type of animal until he was satisfied with the result, whereupon he would turn his attention to other animals. Nor did he extend the range of his art very much, concentrating on monkeys, deer, and a few other animals. One suspects that his natural gifts as an artist were combined with an almost obsessive insistence on doing things thoroughly.
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'2286. An admirable specimen.' (unattributed annotation in the specially interleaved Japanese Study Room copy of Anderson 1886)
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1881
- Acquisition notes
- The collection of over 2,000 Japanese and Chinese paintings assembled by Prof. William Anderson during his residency in Japan, 1873-1880, was acquired by the Museum in 1881. The items were not listed in the register, but rather were published separately as the 'Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum' (Longmans & Co, 1886).
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1881,1210,0.2286
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.2508 (Japanese Painting Number)