Posted By: Tim
Posted Date: Jul 30, 2015 (08:29 AM)
Could someone offer a translation of the artist signature?
I bought this scroll painting from a rather unlikely town in West Florida where the antique shops are HEAVILY picked, but as the saying goes....even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Painted area measures about 4 feet x 14" wide.
The painting is on silk, so while I would describe the colors as somewhat muted anyway, the flash on my camera has made the painting appear much lighter than in actuality. However, without the flash, I would not be able to capture the detail as clearly, so I've opted to post the photos as they are.
The artist seems to have a good hand and put plenty of detail into the fine tree branches, wood plank fence surrounding the house, and painted the mountains in varying degrees of depth, so I think the artist is a professional.
My concern is that these mountain landscape paintings seem to be the most popular scenes to reproduce for the tourist trade, so I would not be entirely surprised to find that the painting is a copy of a more famous painting/painter.
My concern over the quality of the piece is that is has only one seal, that of the artist (I assume, since I don't know the seal or the artist). Most fine examples I've seen have at least 2 or more seals, especially a painting of this size.
That said, there does seem to be age, both in the general wear of the silk/paper scroll, but more importantly the reverse paper has what I describe as a negative image of the painting that has been created from light passing through the unpainted areas over numerous years.
I first saw this effect when I started to collect 19th c. Japanese woodblock prints in the 1990's, but I'm not sure if there is any science that can definitively determine how old a painting is by this effect. Generally, I found that pieces with this 'negative' effect were around 100 yrs old or more, but I'm sure a lot of other factors play into what causes this to happen.
The other interesting feature of the painting is that the scroll handles (zhoutou - thank you Wikipedia!) appear to be huanghuali. I'm aware that some ordinary rosewood will lighten and appear to be similar in color to huanghuali, but this wood does not look like it has gone through that type of light bleaching. Also, the cheaper scrolls tend to have cheaply lacquered or painted handles.
I've posted as much detail as I could fit into the 3 images. Happy to post more if it helps.
Thanks!
Tim
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- Tim - Aug 04, 2015 (05:50 AM)