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Children with Cat and Mouse


猫と鼠を抱く兄弟と女
Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1725–1770)
Japanese
Edo period
about 1768–69 (Meiwa 5–6)

Medium/Technique Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Dimensions Vertical chûban; 28 x 20.4 cm (11 x 8 1/16 in.)
Credit Line William Sturgis Bigelow Collection
Accession Number11.19493
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPrints

A big sister rushes to prevent a family tragedy as her two little brothers introduce their respective pets, a cat and a mouse. The cat is about to escape from the smaller boy’s grasp and stares hungrily at the mouse held by the older boy.

Catalogue Raisonné Kobayashi, Harunobu taizen (2023), #124; MFA, Suzuki Harunobu (exh. cat., 2017), #90; Waterhouse, The Harunobu Decade (2013), #378; Ukiyo-e shûka 4 (1979), list #572, and supp. 2 (1982), pl. 345
Signed Harunobu ga
春信画
ProvenanceBy 1911, purchased by William Sturgis Bigelow (b. 1850 - d. 1926), Boston [see note 1]; 1911, gift of Bigelow to the MFA. (Accession Date: August 3, 1911)

NOTES:
[1] Much of Bigelow's collection of Asian art was formed during his residence in Japan between 1882 and 1889, although he also made acquisitions in Europe and the United States. Bigelow deposited many of these objects at the MFA in 1890 before donating them to the Museum's collection at later dates.