Tiger, Tigress and Cub
A regal, reclining tigress nurses her cub, while an adult male tiger—possibly her mate—stands poised to drink at a narrow mountain stream, his mouth open in a snarl. Although the landscape is rendered simply in ink monochrome, the thick fur and sinuous muscularity of the tigers are painted in detail, with the color wash on their coats and the yellow silk background around them creating the impression of sunlight.
Chikudō, the fourth-generation head of the Kyoto-based Kishi school, advocated the practice of sketching from life and could have seen live tigers starting in the late 1860s. Like the founder of the school, Ganku, he became famous for his meticulous tiger paintings, one of which was exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The artist and several of his late Edo- and Meiji-period contemporaries were active in establishing a painting style that blended traditional Japanese painting with elements of Western realism and perspective.
Chikudō, the fourth-generation head of the Kyoto-based Kishi school, advocated the practice of sketching from life and could have seen live tigers starting in the late 1860s. Like the founder of the school, Ganku, he became famous for his meticulous tiger paintings, one of which was exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The artist and several of his late Edo- and Meiji-period contemporaries were active in establishing a painting style that blended traditional Japanese painting with elements of Western realism and perspective.
Artwork Details
- 岸竹堂筆 虎図屏風
- Title: Tiger, Tigress and Cub
- Artist: Kishi Chikudō (Japanese, 1826–1897)
- Period: Meiji period (1868–1912)
- Date: 1892
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on silk
- Dimensions: Overall (each): 68 1/8 in. × 14 ft. 2 3/4 in. (173 × 433.7 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Sachiko and Lawrence Goodman Gift, 2018
- Object Number: 2018.283.1, .2
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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