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Mori Sosen
Japanese, 1747-1821
Mori Sosen is famous for his many paintings depicting monkeys and other animals. Robert van Gulik called him "an undisputed master" of the painting of the Japanese macaque. When a gibbon was brought in Japan by the Dutch in 1809, creating somewhat of a sensation (gibbons had long been depicted by Japanese artists, based on Chinese paintings of the animal, but no one in Japan had seen a live gibbon for centuries, it was Mori who had created a graphic record of this event as well.
He changed the first character of his name to one meaning 'monkey'. He also founded a school of animal painting with his brother Shūhō, in Osaka.
It is unknown whether he was born in Nagasaki or Nishinomiya, but he lived in Osaka for most of his life
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