Tiger

The painter Ganku was known for his paintings of animals, especially tigers. He employed various techniques: the Kanō ink style, Nagasaki school naturalism (influenced by Chinese realistic painting) and the style of the Maruyama-Shijō school. The painting is interesting for its dynamic composition: the dominant figure of the S-shaped body of a tiger on an empty background, but also for its technical finesse, which draws inspiration from a repertoire of loose brush strokes contrasting with the detailed structure of the tiger’s fur. The painting is signed on the bottom left with the characters Echizen no Suke Ganku – “the administrator of Echizen Province”. It dates the painting to the period after Ganku was named to the post in 1804.