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would appreciate help on this. anybody recognize the who the original artist could be of this copy? sooo many copies so little time. :-)
thanks for looking.
happy holidays to you all!

The first image contains a seal that reads "Bada Shanren" (八大山人). See the link for additional information on this famed painter of the early Qing period.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :Bada Shanren

don't recognize where the original image comes from, but the seals and signature are meant to be Bada Shanren's (aka Zhu Da), but are not, and Bada never painted this subject.

Both signature 笑之 and seal 八大山人 (Badashan ren) do refer to the famous Chinese painter Zhu Da (1626-1705).
The experts 'things Chinese' could inform us if the painting could be genuine or should be a Chinese (or even Japanese) copy or forgery.

Guy.

to Bill H., Rat and Guy...
thank you! bowing to the esteemed panel of experts for the excellent information and leads. so bit of research was in order.it seems the painting probably a 1930's japanese forgery.crazy huh? Zhu Da wow! a fascinating character. thoroughly enjoyed learning about him. terrific painter. love this forum. :-)
again; happy holidays to you all.

yes, Guy makes a good point: your figure is much more like a Japanese Bodhidarma than anything else, it could indeed be Japanese. The other character known to cross water on a reed was the Daoist adept Lu Dongbin, but he is always pictured in scholar's garb, not as a monk as here.

Here's a (reversed) closeup of a fan painting of Lu Dongbin from the Boston MFA collection for comparison. http://lapislazulitexts.com/images/150px-lu_dongbin_crossing_r.jpeg

Rat,

Indeed, I think it is a Japanese depiction of 'Royo Daruma' (Daruma crossing the Yangtze River on a reed). Seems that, at least in Japan, the Daruma is rendered both as a monk or as a scholar, and sometimes even as a female character (female Daruma).

The seal (not read) in the lower corner at the right could contain the clue to the original artist.

Guy.

I'll also cast my vote on stylistic grounds for terris's painting being the Bodhidarma a.k.a. Daruma by a Japanese artist. Here's a Chinese depiction of Damo crossing the Yangtze on a reed painted by a Chinese artist on Taiwan named Keng-yun Kuo (pinyin Gengyun Guo - 耕雲郭). The title of the painting is "Yi Ye Bo Jiang" (一葉波江), Literally "A single leaf on the Surging Yangtze". If I'm reading the two characters after the name correctly as a cyclical date of Gengzi (庚子), the scroll would have been painted in 1960, or about seven years before I bought it from Mr. Kuo in Taichung.

Best regards,

Bill H

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