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Bad photo I know - but just received a print/painting from my Great Uncle's estate and he received this from a patient (in kind payment) as my Uncle was a very generous doctor.

Trying to determine if it is Japanese or Chinese and if the artist can be identified/date.

I'm leaning Chinese, can't tell much from your photo though. a better picture of the seal may help

Here is a much better picture of the signature

you are right about the photo but the script type is stylized archaic that I'm not familiar with and the signature is different characters entirely in a cursive hand that I can only guess at without more context.

there are clues in the right column but without posting the image it's not entirely clear what the next resource to be consulted will be.

Here is the complete image

rat:

I appreciate your time - I have posted the full image and am still curious as to your assessment on the signature.

Thanks.

Sorry, just now saw the photo of the attractive painting you posted. Am afraid this post isn't going to be very helpful though. The magpies and the peony flowers remind me of similar enameled paintings on Chinese porcelain that were done mostly during the first half of the 20th century, but the forcefulness of the brushstrokes, the flatness/2 dimensionality of the branches, the angularity of the elements of the picture etc all strike me as Japanese instead. In either case, the painting likely dates from the first half of the 20th century, possibly the last years of the 19th century.

(There was a minor Ming painter named Zhou Ban who used the nickname 青年, but I suspect that the 青年 mentioned in the inscription here refers to someone one else, particularly if the painting is Japanese.)

hopefully someone else can read either the painter's name or seal impression.

Looking at the picture again I feel more confident that it is Chinese, probably from southern China, but still can't identify the artist from the inscription or seal, hope someone else can.

Thanks for your help. Hopefully someone can hep to decipher.

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