Monkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and Puppy

Monkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and Puppy

Nagasawa Rosetsu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nagasawa Rosetsu, the son of a low-ranking samurai, was adopted by a Kyoto family and studied painting with Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795), the leading realist painter of the era. Following Ōkyo’s style, especially his naturalistic depiction of animals, birds, and fish, Rosetsu established a reputation as an eccentric but imaginative and popular artist. In this pair of paintings, he shows, at right, a macaque perched atop a rock entwined with pink-colored vines. In the left scroll, a man, probably a monkey trainer, appears startled by his companions: two young boys and a puppy. Monkeys, children, and puppies are subjects Rosetsu turned to time and again over the course of his relatively brief career.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and PuppyMonkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and PuppyMonkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and PuppyMonkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and PuppyMonkey on a Rock; Monkey Trainer with Chinese Children and Puppy

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.