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Hi,
I bought this painting a couple of years ago. It is made on very thin paper and in bad condition with several holes and water damage. I�d be very thankful if anyone could help me with any information as to age and artist. The former owners told me that his grandfather was a missionary and bought it in china around 1900. Thank you!
Martin

hello, martin


it's chinese calligraphy, and most chinese calligraphy like yours are coupets.


aloha,
dennis

Dear Dennis,

Thanks a lot for your reply. For some reason the painting itself does not show up, so I try to attach it again to this mail. I�d be very thankful for any comments.

Martin

Hi Martin, This looks like a nicely executed late 19th/early 20th painting, signed by Zhou Hansheng

hello, martin


your painting looks like it have some age, but
i can't read chinese so can't tell what it really
means. i have a few paintings like yours, and most of the time. the calligraphy says(artist)when it was made, place, and something like whats
he doing of that time,like there is a young chick
looking at he? or sometimes the day are just boring and thinking what can they do? and the small characters are the artist's name. seals are
name of artist's and title of painting. appraiser's charge at least $150.00 for infomation about your painting. i do it for free,
and the differance is you know artist's real name.


aloha,
dennis

Hi rat,

Thanks a lot! Would you also have any suggestion where to find more information on Zhou Hansheng, please? I tried a free search and several museum databases - without finding the artist. I also tried other spellings of the name.
Thanks,
Martin

hi, martin


that's the hard part when searching for more
information about the artist, unless it's a famous artist's. and it looks to me that your painting is some that i would pay for an appraisal, and if you do get it appraise. find
a good chinese appraiser, because not all appraiser's the same. not all appraiser's are qualified, and some just what to make money and
provide little information. remember they are making money of your arts. find one that know's
something about the artist's, because i feel that
if the appraiser don't know anything about the artist. then i im paying for his education.


aloha,
dennis

sorry I didn't turn up anything on this guy either. I checked Zhongguo Meishujia Renming Cidian and its two supplements and a google search, but there were lots of painters who aren't recorded in the major works. Even so this looks like a late 19th century painting of decent quality

Thanks again for all the input! I think i�m not going to an appraiser as i don�t want to sell the painting. But i might try to find help at a museum and put it there on permanent loan in case it�s of interest.
Martin

http://www.haoshici.com/Sushi432.html

�K�Y (�K�|��)

ٛ������

�ɱM�џo�����w,
�՚��q�а�˪֦��
һ��þ����ӛ,
���dz��S�پG�r

The two sentences (with seven characters in each sentence) shown at the right-hand side of your painting are the last two sentences of a 7-character short poem���Խ^Ԋ (qi yan jui shi), titled ��For Liu Jing Wen�� ٛ������ , written by the famous Northern Sung poet, �K�Y Su Shi or �K�|�� Su Dong Pou in Ԫ������ 1090 A.D.

The poem described the late fall and early winter scenery in his poem which can be translated as:

��Lotus (Nelumbo) withered with their seed heads gone,
Yet rotted mums (chrysanthemum) remained with their branches whole,
Remember you must, the best view of the year,
is no other than the time when oranges were still yellow and tangerines were still green.��

The poet, Su, gave this poem to his friend. Liu, to remind him that although his friend��s life might seem to be at the end of his journey (just like winter), yet looking back he should have no regret because he had already accomplished a lot (like harvesting at the end of Fall) and therefore although he was no longer young, he should treasure the reminder of his life without feeling depressed or trying togive up.

The last two sentences the poet used especially to praise the high moral character of his friend because the view of oranges becomes yellow and tangerines remaining green was the most beautiful view of the year, just like the beautiful character of his friend.

(*Note: the �^Ԋ jue shi, is a style of short poem became famous during Tang dynasty (right before Sung), it consists of four sentences, each sentence can have either five characters ���� wu yan or seven characters ���� qi yan.
The long poem ��Ԋ lu shi consists of eight sentences, again with either five or seven
characters in each sentence.)

The first character shown in the second sentence at the left side of your painting is

�� (fang) means imitate or copy

That means the artist was copying an original painting painted by �A�� Hua Yan, also known as
���_ɽ�� or �A���� (1682-1756), a painter in the Qing dynasty (around Emperor
���� Kang Xi era).

Some original painting made by Hua can bee seen here:

http://big5.sc001.com.cn/trade.sc001.com.cn/showimg/85383.html#img1

There is one Chinese character executed in�ݕ� Cao Shu (cursive script) between the above characters and the name of possibly the painter of this painting -�ܝh�� Zhou Han Sheng. I cannot confirm what it is, it can either be Wan or Hua, both can be Chinese surnames. It is not uncommon for Chinese married women to use their husband��s surname right in front of their own maiden name which will end up with a Chinese name with four characters. However, the name Zhou Han Sheng is usually used for males and therefore this extra cursive character (different than other standard scripts) placed right before the name of the presumed artist of your painting is a mystery to me.

Not too much can be found about Zhou Han Sheng, there is only one Chinese artist with that name could be found:

http://tc.wangchao.net.cn/baike/detail_1984763.html

This Zhou Han Sheng was born in 1942, graduated from the Canton Academy of Industrial Arts in 1966, studying the techniques of carving bamboo of Ming/Qing dynasty and became one of the distinguished bamboo carving experts during the 70s in China. He has also served as assistance professor at the ��h���h��Wˇ�gϵ http://www.jhun.edu.cn/
May be you can contact him and see if he was the one who did your painting.

Good luck.

PK

P.S. By the way, something is wrong with your e-mail address.

well done, PK!

Thank you so much for your very detailed reply! Sorry for my late answer. As mentioned earlier i was told that the painting came to Germany through a missionary who went to China en th early 1900s. But i should try to contact the artist to see what he says about it. Mayb the story i was told is simply wrong.
Again thanks a lot,
Martin

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