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Lot 132*

Mori Sosen (1747-1821)
Late 18th/early 19th century

Fine Japanese Art
11 May 2010, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £15,600 inc. premium

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Mori Sosen (1747-1821)

Late 18th/early 19th century
Kakejiku, in ink and slight colour on silk, depicting two monkeys on a pine branch, the mother grooming its offspring, signed Sosen hitsu with seal Sosen, with tomobako titled and signed by Sosen, together with a paper invoice issued by Ajioka Yoshibei, indicating the original price paid of one thousand three hundred and sixty yen (an extraordinary sum for the time). 115cm x 50cm (45¼in x 19¾in). (3).

Footnotes

松猿図　森狙仙　一幅　絹本淡彩　18世紀後期-19世紀前期

Provenance: Tokugawa family, Bishu province (present day Aichi prefecture)

Published: Tokyo Bijutsu Club, Bishu Tokugawa-ke onzohin nyusatsu mokuroku (Catalogue of Bishu Tokugawa family private collection sale), Tokyo, 7th Nov 1921 (Taisho 10).

The Owari (Tokugawa Owari-ke) branch of the Tokugawa clan is descended from Tokugawa Yoshinao, the ninth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is also the main Gosanke ('Three Honourable Houses of the Tokugawa'). For over 250 years, the Owari family ruled Owari Domain (present day Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture), using Nagoya Castle as its main residence. When the property was dispersed in the above sale, the head of the family was Tokugawa Yoshichika (1886-1976), the 19th generation. The present head of the family is Tokugawa Yoshitaka.

Sosen, the founder of the Mori painting School, was active in Osaka at the end of the Edo period and came to be known as the 'Monkey Painter Sosen,' and he is renowned even today for his monkey paintings. Like his contemporary Maruyama Okyo, Sosen created works based on sketches from life as is finely exemplified by the painting presented here, where the artist has beautifully captured the realism of the details of the animals' soft fur in the refined delicacy of the brushstrokes.

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