white mice have fun c. 1816

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
www.metmuseum.org

In this happy surimono (color woodblock print), Kubo Shunman shows us "White Mice Playing." Shunman was a novelist and poet as well as an artist; I bet that's a poem written to the right, but alas, I cannot read it.

wordless vintage wednesday redux

from the museum collection, first posted 2012

catnap

CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Somewhere in the files of the Wellcome Library you'll find "A Sleeping Cat," a Japanese work in gouache dating to the 19th century.

grey spots, a blue sky

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

"A Grey Spotted Hound" stands at proud attention with his prey, a bird draped open-beaked at his feet (ah, poor thing). This oil on panel portrait was created in 1738 by John Wootton (British, 1682-1764), in his time considered one of the best painters of sporting life.  In the 1720's he studied in Rome as Baroque art was entering its final years.  To me that explains the deep, warm color of the background, its long scope, and the clarity of this piece's details, and how this splendidly-coated fellow stands with such presence. 

a chipmunk does a hat

By Gilles Gonthier from Canada
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In which Anna Botsford Comstock relates the tale of a pet chipmunk with a taste for nuts and fashion, in that order...

***

Miss Irene Hardy, of Palo Alto, Cal., has had marked success in making pets of the little chipmunks of the Sierras. One called Chipsy was especially interesting. He was allowed the freedom of her room, and after she had filled the dish on the table with English walnuts, he would keep himself busy for a long time stealing and hiding them. His originality in finding hiding places was remarkable. Once he managed to get his nuts and himself into a covered bandbox on the closet shelf and stored his precious walnuts in the velvet bows of a bonnet. His unsuspecting mistress wore the bonnet thus decorated to church and did not discover the work of her new milliner until after she returned.

-- Anna Botsford Comstock, The Pet Book (Ithaca NY: The Comstock Publishing Company, 2nd ed., 1915) p. 84.

rita on a rainy afternoon

image copyright and by kindest courtesy of the artist

That's the title of this charming piece by L.A. artist Stephanie Birdsong.  Rita's looking out the window at a friend across the way - see him?  He's above the bookstore.  It's a completely plausible situation, presented as the coziest escape.  I wish I were sitting at the table with her.
"Rita on a Rainy Afternoon" and many other bright jolly scenes are available at Birdsong's Etsy shop.
Just for instance, here's a few I also loved -
Snowflakes
Radio
The elegant Sneaky Panther
Go and find some fun!

wordless vintage wednesday redux

another replay from the museum collection

this pug personifies monday

www.metmuseum.org (PD)
Lesley and Emma Sheafer , New York (until 1974; bequeathed to MMA)

This weekend I had a lovely overnight at Thornewood Castle.  Now it is Monday, and I think this Staffordshire ware pug from around 1720-40 encapsulates my feelings better than I can myself.