The Peddler

Entitled The Peddler (Huolang tu), this handscroll painting depicts women and children in a rural setting as they merrily surround a peddler selling toys and items for daily use. One child is surrounded by a mother dog and her litter of pups. Seemingly accustomed to the peddler’s arrival, the mother dog jubilantly bounds forward with her adorable pups in tow. Each pup is shown in a unique pose as it follows the others behind their mother. The artist almost anthropomorphizes the emotional connection between the dogs in this exquisite painting.