The painter is best known for his paintings of monkeys and other animals and birds. For most of his life Mori Sosen had lived in Osaka where he founded a school of animal painting with his brother.
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.The artist even changed the first character of his name to one meaning 'monkey' when he was 61.
Mori Sosen -A Peacock (18th c, Edo period). Color and ink on silk