Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board

I purchased four scrolls a couple years ago. A few months ago my former Chinese teacher was at my office for an unrelated reason and saw the scrolls. She was shocked. She said the seal (stamp?) was that of a famous Chinese artist. The other day I translated two characters:Tang Yin. I What do you think? All four are framed so my pictures are poor. Sorry.

more pictures

more pictures

more pictures

A search of 'Zhong Guo Shu Hua Jia Yin Jian Kuan Shi' (which contains the seals and signatures of many major Chinese artists) shows that your paintings are unlikely to be by Tang Yin. In the first place, the calligraphy of the signature is very different to the signatures recorded from genuine works. For example, the first stroke of 'Tang' in the genuine signatures is a downward sloping dot, while this signature's first stroke is a horizontal stroke.
Secondly, in all of his seals, the 'Tang' character is carved in conventional seal script style. In your paintings' seals the 'Tang' is an unconventional (and to a purist, incorrect) form.
Thirdly, in a great number of his seals, he used the name "Tang Bai Hu" (White Tiger), even when he signs "Tang Yin".
Tang Yin lived between 1470 and 1523 and lived in JaingSu province. The first two characters in your painting's signature read "Wu Jun", where 'Jun' is a prefecture.
Wish I could have been more positive.

Yes, I agree with Mike` comments about the painting. The main problem of the signature of Tang Yin is a fake signature. It has no the power as what Tang Yin did, on the other hand, the signature of Tang Yin looks like to written in the later periord because the colors of the ink looks very new which should have been as same as the colour of the Wu Jun. Since the years have been passed, the ink colour should be absorbed by the rice paper or the silk.

Meanwhile, the style of the calligraphy of Wu Jun is quite different from the style of the calligraphy of Tang Yin. I have to say that the style of the calligraphy of Wu Jun and the skill is much better than the skill of the signature of Tang Yin.

It seems that the painting is the old painting, but it`s done by some unkonwn artist who copied Tang Yin`s artwork, who lived in the same periord or later, but someone who lived in later date put the fake signature. Such kind of story used to be happened in the end of Qing Dynasty.

Hope my comments would be positive.

Further to my earlier comments, I have just seen three seals used by Tang Yin some time around 1517 with the characters "Wu Jun".
I don't understand the significance, but at least the artist who did the paintings knew quite a lot about Tang Yin.
However, I am quite sure that the differences in the calligraphy are so strong as to rule out this being a genuine Tang Yin painting.

Thank you very much for responding. I read that Tang Yin was, I believe, the founder of the Suzhou school. Possibly the artist of these scrolls was refering to the Suzhou style. The artist of my scrolls was obviously very talented. The scenes depicted on the scrolls are of persons of wealth, possibly an Emperor, his concubine, etc. They might have been commissioned, if that is the proper term. Any opinion? Thanks.

One photo showed a master piece by Qiu Ying (1495-1552)
Would you please check if it is painting or prints?
Regards

Sinoart

I was shocked to see the scene on one of my scrolls depicted in your response. My scrolls are so beautiful I am happy to know he, Qiu Ying, was a beloved artist. They ARE paintings. Or I should say, I have no reason to think these are are not paintings. The scene you (Sinoart) displayed is only part of that one scroll. The scroll is three pieces connected. But the other parts are the same artist. Please tell me more.

Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board