Monkeys by a Stream (c. 1796): Art, History and Details

Monkeys by a Stream (c. 1796) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese, 1754–1799).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The two monkeys in this painting are Japanese macaques. The one in front dangles its left leg over a sharply angled rock, surveying the land beyond a fast-moving mountain stream. A smaller monkey sits behind it, looking directly ahead as if it realizes it is being watched. The artist used just a few highly contrasting warm and cool colors, sweeping brushstrokes over ink washes, and loose lines to create a scene that powerfully evokes the mentally engaged state of the two animals.

Object facts

• Title: Monkeys by a Stream
• Date: c. 1796
• Creator attribution: Nagasawa Rosetsu (Japanese, 1754–1799)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 164.4 x 95.4 cm (64 3/4 x 37 9/16 in.)
• Collection: ASIAN - Hanging scroll
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1985.192

A detail from the museum

Monkeys, which are found throughout the mountainous and wooded areas of Japan, became a favorite subject of many later Japanese artists.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (1986): 26–71.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.