Mid-Edo Era (18C)
Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795) made his name as a master tiger painter but is said to have modeled his artwork on cats, given the lack of a real tiger. The sketched illustration on this folding screen is a seemingly authentic painting, based on the actual skin of a tiger, with the fur and patterns accurately copied and drawn in life size. The detailed measurements of each body part, a sketch of leopard fur and a tiger illustrated in miniature are pasted on a folding screen with two panels, while the hind legs and tail are pasted on the rear due to lack of space. Although exactly when this work was created remains unclear, the style of the miniature tiger painting and the fur sketch point to a period from the end of the Meiwa era (1764-72) to the beginning of the An’ei era (1772-81), when Okyo established his unique tiger-painting style. The small leopard cub shown here was painted by Okyo in 1795 at the age of 63. He passed away the same year.