Familiars of Fortune - Lucky Ermine 🔴 SOLD

Oil, acrylic and gold leaf on birch panel, 30x20cm. Comes with a signed palette that was used to create the piece, a shūgi-bukuro (祝儀袋) envelope containing a golden cherry blossom necklace that the ermine is wearing in the painting. The ermines halo glows by black light, see additional images). For purchase enquiries contact us at info@louisemcnaught.com.
The Lucky Ermine appears in its rare white winter coat, rather than the warm brown it wears through summer. This seasonal transformation has given the ermine a long symbolic association with purity, renewal and transformation, with an old legend claiming it would rather be captured than allow its immaculate white coat to be soiled. Its white winter fur also became associated with nobility, dignity and good fortune, appearing for centuries in royal and heraldic imagery. 
Here, the ermine raises its paw in the maneki-neko gesture, beckoning fortune towards its keeper, while the plaque bears 招福 (shōfuku) — “inviting good fortune.” The golden halo gives this little familiar an almost sacred presence, while the cherry blossom represents the fleeting beauty of life, renewal and the arrival of a new season. The lightning in the distance recalls the maneki-neko legend, in which a beckoning cat drew a samurai away from beneath a tree shortly before lightning struck the place where he had been sheltering, a symbol of protection, fate and unexpected good fortune.