manet paints playtime for a "japanese dog"

courtesy national gallery of art, washington (open access policy)

Oh Tama, was that really your toy?  Here's Edouard Manet around 1875 with an oil on canvas of a most triumphant looking Japanese Chin reigning supreme over a kimonoed doll.  It seems Tama belonged to Manet's journalist friend Theodore Duret, who adopted him while traveling in Japan.  This was right around the time in European culture that Japanese prints were causing a stir in new ways of spatial presentation, and things Japanese were all the rage.  (Did you see Topsy Turvy? Then you know what I mean though that's a slightly later date. Great movie about Gilbert and Sullivan writing The Mikado.)