* Chinese oil paintings
* Chinese watercolors
* China farm life paintings
* Chinese abstract art
* Chen Yifei - famous Chinese painting artist
Chinese painting and calligraphy by traditional art gallery Toperfect, supplies Chinese portrait paintings, famous landscape painting of animals, Shan Shui, flowers, mountains, and traditional chinese calligraphy.
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* Religous Art
* Islamic Art
* Buddhism Art
* Christian Art
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Traditional Chinese Painting |
Oil Painting
* Acrylic Painting
* Watercolor Painting
* Gouache Painting
* Asian Ink Art |
Chinese Painting TechniquesAn important part of the country's cultural heritage, the ancient Chinese painting is distinguished from Western art in that it is executed on xuan paper (or silk) with the Chinese brush, ink, mineral and vegetable pigments. To attain proficiency in this branch of Chinese caligraphy calls for assiduous exercise, a good control of the brush, and a feel and knowledge of the qualities of xuan paper and Chinese painting ink. Before setting a brush to paper, the painter must conceive a well-composed draft in his mind, drawing on his imagination and store of experience, Once Chinese painting artists starts to paint, he will normally have to complete the Chinese scrolls at one go, denied the possibility of any alteration of wrong strokes. |
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Xuan paper, as discussed in
a previous article, is most suitable for
paintings Chinese and calligraphy. It is of the right texture
to allow the writing brush wet with ink and held in a trained hand, to move
freely on it, making strokes varying from
dark to light, from solid to hollow. These
soon turn out to be Chinese portrait paintings of human figures, Chinese
landscape paintings of mountains, animals, plants
and flowers, birds, fish and insects, full
of interest and life.
Famous Chinese paintings are divided into two major categories: free hand brushwork (xieyi) and detailed brushwork (gongbi) . The former is characterized by simple and bold strokes intended to represent the exaggerated likenesses of the objects, while the latter by fine brushwork and close attention to detail. Employing different techniques, the two schools try to achieve the same end, the creation of beauty. |
Chinese Painting HistoryIt is difficult to tell how long traditional painting Chinese has existed in China. Pots of 5,000-6,000 years ago were painted in colour with patterns of flowers, landscapes, and animals, reflecting various aspects of the life of primitive clan communities. These may be considered the beginnings of ancient Chinese paintings. China entered the slave society about 2000
B.C. Though no Chinese landscape painting of that period have
ever come to light, that society witnessed
the emergence of a magnificent bronze
culture, and bronzes can only be taken as a
composite art of Chinese painting and sculpture. |
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In 1949 from a tomb of the Warring States Period (475-221 B. C.) was unearthed a painting Chinese on silk of human figures, dragons and phoenixes. The earliest Chinese brush painting on silk ever discovered in China, it measures about 30 cm long by 20 cm wide. From this and other early traditional Chinese calligraphy on silk it may be easily seen that the ancients were already familiar with the art of the writing or painting brush, for the strokes show vigour or elegance whichever was desired. Our Chinese painters offer reproductions of ancient art of this period that are strongly religious or mythological in themes. |
Chinese scroll on paper appeared much later than
those on silk for the simple reason that the
invention of silk preceded that of paper by
a long historical period. In 1964, when a tomb dating to the Jin Dynasty (265- 420 A. D) was excavated at Astana in Turpan, Xinjiang, a coloured Chinese painting was discovered. It shows, on top, the sun, the moon and the Big Dipper and, below, the owner of fan in his hand. A portrayal in vivid lines of the life of a feudal land-owner, measuring 106.5 cm long 47 cm high, it is the only known Chinese landscape painting on paper of such antiquity in China. Traditional Chinese CalligraphyCalligraphy is understood in China as Chinese art of writing a good hand with the brush or the study of the rules and techniques of this art. As such it is peculiar to China and the few countries influenced by ancient Chinese painting culture. In the history of Chinese art, calligraphy has always been held in equal importance to paintings Chinese. Great attention is also paid today to its development by holding exhibitions of ancient and China modern paintings and by organizing competitions among youngsters and people from various walks of life. |
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Chinese calligraphy, like the script itself,
began with the hieroglyphs and, over the
long ages of evolution, has developed
various styles and schools, constituting an
important part of the heritage of national
culture. |
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Mounting or FramingThere are 4 kinds of mounting and framing for traditional Chinese painting on paper. The prices quoted at our traditional gallery are for simple mounting with Chinese scroll made of wood. Please let us know if you want the Chinese drawings and caligraphy framed or mounted with porcelain scroll. The cost is different for different materials, so it will be helpful if you tell us your budget to buy Chinese painting, then we'll recommend suitable materials in your budget. |
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A, plain unmounted, unable to hang
C, mount in Chinese scrolls, ready to hang |
B, simple mounting to nail or paste D, Mounting and framing, ready to hang |
Traditional Chinese paintingis characterized by a marked graphic quality. A Chinese painter must be a good draughtsman. Beauty and expressiveness of line are achieved rather than the representation of solidity. In all periods the Chinese have revealed in their works an intuitive feeling for color, both sure and delicate. Though ignorant of the laws of chiaroscuro, they have occasionally produced works that show a mastery of the most delicate effects of light and shade. In Chinese landscape painting they express a passionate love for nature and a power to interpret her moods that is unexcelled.The pictorial art of China has been developed with only an occasional impulse from the West. In the first century after Christ came the most important outside stimulus in the introduction of Buddhistic motives and imagery from India. Since then religion has furnished the Chinese painter abundant inspiration, though the works which at first bespoke a fervent piety became in time formal. The beginnings of Chinese are a matter of legend only, which places the invention of painting and writing alike in the far-away time of the Yellow Emperor, about 2700 b. c. Frequent allusions to painting are found in books by native writers from the third century b. c. Dr. Bushell 1 has made a convenient division of the history of ancient Chinese painting into three periods: the primitive period, up to A. d. 264; the classical period, a. d. 265960; and the period of development and decline, a. d. 960- 1643. Though since the fifteenth century no new impulse has throbbed through Chinese art, the Chinese may point with pride to a succession of great painters for a thousand years before that time. According to Chinese manuscripts, among the motives of the primitive period the dragon and the tiger, those great symbols that picture to the Chinese mind the perpetual struggle between spirit and matter, are already employed. The dragon stands for the power of the spirit; the tiger, for material forces. Portraiture is prominent, the Confucian ancestor worship naturally fostering that branch of painting. Mural decoration appears also to be a familiar form of art. The water-color picture on a long roll of silk (Japanese makimono), pasted on thick paper and mounted at the ends with rollers of wood, with space left for seals or inscriptions, came into use even thus early. To Ku K'ai- chih of the fourth century, nine centuries before Giotto, is attributed a painting in the British Museum, entitled Admonitions of the Female Historian, 2 that shows a mature handling of subject and a sure mastery of technique. Many are the stories of the wonderworking power of these primitive artists. For example, legend says that one artist painted a dragon so wondrously that two centuries later the picture, when thrown into the water, produced a ten days' rain, thus ending a severe drought. During the T'ang Dynasty (618-905), tranditional Chinese paintings reached an Augustan Period, a time of great force and originality of creative work. Wu-Tao-tzii, who lived in the eighth century, stands as a worthy representative of this period of genius, "by universal consent at the head of all Chinese painters, ancient and modern." 1 His original method and swiftness of execution made him a marvel to his contemporaries. For instance, he painted a famous portrait of a general not sitting to him but dancing a sword dance before him. His masterpiece was a religious picture, Buddha entering into Nirvana. Although this has probably not survived, a very early copy of it shows the composition, at least. At the beginning of the last period, the period of development and decline, stands the Sung Dynasty (960-1280), when every writer was expected also to be a painter and poets illustrated their own works. " Refinement and technical perfection" are the characteristics of the age. The great name of this period is Li Lung-mien, famous especially for his religious paintings. William Anderson is responsible for the statement that there is nothing "in the religious art of Cimabue that would not appear tame and graceless by the side of the Buddhistic composition of Wu-Tao-tzu or Li Lungmien." Mr. Laurence Binyon of the British Museum pays tribute to the Sung period in the following words: "The Sung age was one of the few ages of the world which have had the intellectual character we call 'modern.' This is most marked in its conception of landscape. Not till the nineteenth century in Europe do we find anything like the landscape art of China in the Sung period — a disinterested love of beauty in nature for its own sake." The Ming period (13681643) lacked creative power, though many of its pictures possess charm. Generally, the subjects represented are not grand and lofty, but the familiar scenes of everyday life, or the social life of the court. This Chinese painting, probably a copy of the work of a Sung artist, is painted on a roll of brown silk measuring 21 feet 2| inches in length by 11J inches in width. The subject is panoramic in character, exhibiting the varied scenes of village life along the banks of a Chinese river on the feast of the tombs, which occurs in April. As one unrolls the picture, one sees people buying and selling merchandise of various kinds, receiving guests, unloading boats, bearing burdens suspended from a yoke hung over the shoulders, sawing wood, fishing, raking hay, and performing many simple, familiar acts of daily life. At one point an imposing-looking gentleman is carried in a sedan chair; at another, a woman is trundled in a wheelbarrow. Children playing and animals gamboling add to the liveliness of the scene. At the extreme left are some curious boats in festal array, representing in their shape and decoration dragons or tigers, with the heads of the animals as figure-heads, on which stand men carrying banners. The coloring is attractive with the dull green of the hills, the dainty pink and white blossoms of flowering trees, and the many-colored gowns of the myriad little people against the brown background of the silk. |