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Your galleryMonkeys by a Stream
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Look at the red leaves climbing the rock, then compare the two monkeys’ gazes: one looking out over the stream, the other looking straight back at you.
Two Japanese macaques sit on a steep rock above a fast mountain stream. The larger one dangles a leg over the edge and looks out, while the smaller one stares straight ahead, as if it knew it was being watched. Rosetsu used only a few strongly contrasting warm and cool colors over ink washes. He signed it as Rosetsu of Heian, the old name of Kyoto, and his fish seal is broken at one corner, as it was from about 1793.
hanging scroll; ink and color on paper · Overall: 164.4 x 95.4 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Monkeys by a Stream
- Artist
- Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese, 1754–1799)
- Date
- c. 1796
- Medium
- hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
- Dimensions
- Overall: 164.4 x 95.4 cm (64 3/4 x 37 9/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1754–1799
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.