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Stag Cleaning a Fawn

Mori Sosen Japanese

Not on view

A stag lowers his head and gently licks a fawn, a casual scene the artist surely saw enacted in the wild. Sosen painted it swiftly within the small area of the fan, brushing the deer’s fur using the mokkotsu (“boneless,” meaning without ink outlines) technique and tarashikomi ("dripping in," or mottled pigmentation) for their white spots, creating a gentle overall impression.

Stag Cleaning a Fawn, Mori Sosen (Japanese, 1747–1821), Fan, mounted on ribs; ink and light color on coated fan paper, Japan

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