Fine Japanese Prints
Fine Japanese Prints
The Property of a Gentleman
Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889) | Never Seen Before: True Picture of a Tiger from the West | Edo period, 19th century
Lot Closed
December 14, 03:13 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of a Gentleman
Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-1889)
Never Seen Before: True Picture of a Tiger from the West
Edo period, 19th century
woodblock print, signed Oju Seisei Kyosai (Seisei Kyosai, by request), published by Ebisuya Shoshichi (Kinshodo), 8th month 1860
Vertical oban: 37.5 x 25.1 cm., 14¾ x 9⅞ in.
Shortly after the opening of the Treaty Ports in July 1859, a leopard was brought to Yokohama and Ryogoku in Edo to be exhibited, causing a sensation amongst the Edo public. In earlier Edo period painting, leopards were often seen accompanying tigers as it was thought that they were their female counterparts and misidentification between the two species was common. The sight of this exotic wild feline hereto only imagined in tales and pictures inspired numerous artists: Kyosai himself designed four versions beginning with a first dated to the sixth month of 1860. Here, the leopard is seen leaping up at a live cockerel. The text by the author and journalist Kanagaki Robun (1829-1894) recounts the fanciful origins of the leopard.1
Timothy Clark, Demon of Painting: The Art of Kawanabe Kyosai, (London, 1993), pg. 140, no. 93.
For an example of the first design of a leopard by Kyosai in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), accession number 2007.49.262, go to: