Peony and CatPeony and Cat

Under the red, white and pink peony in full bloom, a cat curls up and sleeps. Peony and cats are a traditional combination in Chinese paintings and the painting also shows a trace of experimental trial and error of the painter using the Mokkotsu technique, which is painting without an outline, applying pigments over and over and blurring them in some parts. The cat is reproduced not very skillfully, but its expression of slumbering comfortably is unique and adorable. Shiba Kokan (1747-1818) was a painter and a Dutch scholar in the latter half of the mid-Edo period.