The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2023

Lions and Tigers in Peony and Bamboo

牡丹に唐獅子と竹に虎図屏風

1668

Part of a set. See all set records

Yamaguchi Sekkei 山口 雪渓

(Japanese, 1644–1732)

Japan, Edo period

(1615-1868)

One of a pair of six-panel folding screens; ink and color on gilded paper

Image: 149 x 330 cm (58 11/16 x 129 15/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1972.10.2

Location

not on view

Description

Sekkei lived and studied painting in Kyoto at the Kano school studio, the center of traditional painting activity in Japan since 1500. The use of gold foil as a backdrop for the frolicking animals served a practical as well as a decorative function. Because traditional Japanese rooms had no windows, interior lighting came from portable oil lamps and wax candles, whose effects were magnified by reflective surfaces.

Provenance
?–1972
(Nisaburo Mizutani, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1972–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Cunningham, Michael R. "The Japanese Painter Yamaguchi Sekkei." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 1 (1980): 2-16. Reproduced: p. 2; Mentioned: p. 2-16 www.jstor.org
Cunningham, Michael R. Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: pp. 38–39
Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 121). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 18-October 26, 2003).

Unfolding Beauty: Japanese Screens from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 15-September 16, 2001).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.10.2