Original Chinese Shan Shui Paintings by Chen Hongchou 陳 洪疇 山水

Not too long ago I bought these original Chinese Shan Shui (Mountain-Water 山水) landscape paintings by Chen Hongchou, ( 陳 洪疇 ) on eBay.   They're fairly recent I believe, and I also believe that Chen Hongchou is most likely a Chinese American, or at the very least, living in a Western country, because the works are painted on Western paper, not a traditional Asian paper used in traditional Chinese painting.   They're painted on Watercolor paper, not a rice paper like Xuan or Kozo, etc.  The sharp, bright colors also tell me that this is a newer painting, most likely painted within the last 10 years.

I couldn't find any information online about the artist Chen Hongchou, because another painter, from Ming Dynasty period China, shares a similar name, Chen Hongshou, and when I do Google searches, anything relevant to Chinese paintings by Chen Hongchou ends up showing results for Chinese paintings by Chen Hongshou.

This Chinese shan shui landscape painting is signed 洪疇, Hongchou, and is stamped with his chop seal, 陳洪疇, Chen Hongchou.  The Chinese calligraphy reads: 影落明湖青黛山. ( Green mountain shadow reflected on the lake )

On this shan shui landscape painting, the Chinese calligraphy reads:登高壯觀天地間 大江茫茫去不還 and is signed Hongchou, 洪疇 above his chop seal 陳 洪疇 , Chen Hongchou.  In English, it translates as Climb the high can see spectacular scenery. Vast big river flow away never come back.

Much gratitude and thanks for my friend Hung-Yueh Hsu for his invaluable assistance in translating the calligraphy & seals for me.

Chinese Hand Painted Marble Tile 盧溝曉月 Lu Gou Xiao Yue

I'm not sure when this was painted, nor do I know who the artist is, but the painting itself is rather crude and of very low artistic quality, yet I still wanted it enough to buy it on ePay, and since it was just delivered today, I decided to post it here.

It's a hand painted marble tile of the Lu Guo Bridge near Beijing. The inscription reads 盧溝曉月, Lú gōu xiǎo yuè, translated to english as "In the Lugou bridge to appreciate the moon".  Thank you to my friend Hung-Yueh Hsu in Taiwan for the translation.

The tile is wrapped in a handmade cloth frame and is only 3 1/4" x 4 1/2"

It definitely appears to be a one of a kind hand made work.

Lowest Priced Chinese Chop Stone Seal Carving

Since I do my own Chinese ink brush painting, calligraphy, & watercolor, I needed a Chinese chop stone, or Chinese chop seal if you will, to sign my artwork with.

  I spent several days browsing around online for the best deals on Chinese seal carving, and I found the best price online for buying custom carved Chinese seals, direct from a carver in China.  Many online retailers and other online vendors specializing in art supplies to the Asian painting market have very inflated prices and charge anywhere from $50 to over $100 for a blank chop stone, and then they charge you an additional astronomical fee for the seal carving.  Worst part is, many online retailers are just middlemen acting as resellers.   You order your Chinese name seal from them at $100+, then they order from the carver at a mere fraction of what they're charging you.

Well, you can skip the middleman and order direct from a carver.   I have seen some seal carvers charging some insane amounts of money and as much as I really needed Chinese chop seals to stamp my paintings with, I wanted them as cheap as possible, but also to be a high quality product with excellent craftsmanship, and I'm happy that I have found just that, from a seal carver named Feng Zhuo in Qufu, Shangdong Province, China..  Qufu is the hometown and birthplace of Confucius.

I'm very happy with my order.  I contacted Feng Zhuo via his eBay shop and inquired about which size I needed for my name and received an immediate response.  I browsed around his online shop, chose my stones, and ordered two Chinese chop stone seals for $16 + $9 shipping to the US, with no additional charge for the carving.

A day later, Mr. Zhuo showed me a photograph of the seal's imprint, which is what you see in the upper right hand corner of this blog, which is the seal for my name, carved in Chinese seal script. I was satisfied with the results and Mr. Zhuo prepared my package for shipping, which only took 8 days to arrive from China to the East coast United States..

Feng Zhuo, who operates under the business name of Zhuo Yuan Seal Co. LTD aka Ideas For Life on eBay, is an award winning seal carver and engraver with over 10 years experience.  His service is superb, as well as the quality of his craftsmanship and materials.  I highly recommend him if you need Chinese chop stone seals carved with your name, etc.

My Chinese chop stones arrived well packed for safe travel from China to the US,  with their own traditional Chinese storage case.

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The Chinese chop seals I ordered are Baiwen, also referred to as Yin Seals, which is white characters on red background, but you may also request Chinese seal carving for Zhuwen, aka Yang Seals, which is red characters on white background, which is what I'll be ordering next.

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Unfortunately I didn't order any Chop seal paste yet, aka Yinni, or Cinnabar ink, so I am not able to show you the results of the seal inked on paper, other than the sample provided to me by Mr Zhuo.  I did however experiment by attempting to make my own mock seal paste using a thick mix of Vermillion watercolor since I just couldn't resist the temptation to try it. :)  Not too bad considering its lack of pastiness, so I can't wait til I get a Cinnabar ink tin.

In retrospect, I should have ordered any of the sets of Chinese chops that Feng Zhuo sells that include the Cinnabar ink paste.
If you order Chinese Chop Seals from Mr Zhuo, please tell him that I sent you, with high recommendations.  Who knows, maybe I'll get a discount in the future, lol.. but more importantly, I think he deserves the recognition and more business than the high priced sharks out there.

Lotus Flowers Painting & Poem by Mei Feng. 梅 峰

Lotus Flowers by Mei Feng, with poem in calligraphy.  Modern print, presumably from Haddad's Fine Arts, although I'm unable to confirm whether or not this is where this print originated.  Mounted and framed..

This jade green river garment permeates its pure fragrance even to the far bank, its appearance like a pavilion,  Why needs one require ten miles of lotus plants knitted together like boats in the mirror-like turbidity of water, opening as if like a meandering screen

by Mei Feng


翠薟江衣出遠汀清香冉，影亭，
何須十里蓮舟絡一鏡渾開只曲屏
梅 峰

Translation & Chinese text courtesy of Cdict.org, copyright Lita Xú Líng Kelley,
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

Buy the 6.75 X 11 poster version of this beautiful poem and lotus flowers print at Amazon

17th Century Chinese Painting Signed Tse-Tien 謝十 w/ Appraisal by Ling-Fu Yang

I'm very excited about this 17th century Chinese painting I just purchased and am continuing researching it, hopefully to find out more about the artist and if there's more works by this artist who simply signed his name as Tse-Tien according to artist, curator, and professor Ling Fu Yang.

I haven't been able to find anything online about an artist named Tse Tien for any period, nor for any of the various possible variations such as Tse Tian, Zhi Tian, Xie Tien, etc,

(Note:  I believe it more likely to be Tian since the character is 田 whereas the character for Tien is 十 which is pronounced Shi, although it is doubtful in my mind that Ling Fu Yang would make such a mistake, but more probably that she used Cantonese.

As for Tse, or Xie, Ze, Zhi or other potential variants, it is rather difficult for me to see and determine which, due to my poor eyesight, the small size of the signature via the red seal and the fact that it's written over black, making it more difficult for me to read.  Asking around for help, I was told that it's possibly Zhi Tian, but Tse, which sounds very similar, the character for it 謝 is also for Xie , but Zhi is 志 and I can't determine which it is on the painting itself, however, due to Ling Fu Yang's assesment, I believe the person who told me Zhi Tian is incorrect in his translation, so it may be Tse Tian, or Xie Tian I believe.

One thing that's peculiar to me about this painting is the shape of the seal, which isn't signed with a traditional chop seal, but appears to be hand painted in what I can only describe as a distorted teardrop shape rather than the standard, traditional square, circle, oval, etc.   I have never seen, nor heard of, or been able to find anything about this form of seal or signature on any Classical Chinese Paintings.

The other thing I find peculiar, and have yet to determine if was common practice, is the small size.  The painting itself is 17cm x 22cm (approx 6 13/16" x 8 3/8") without the silk border, total dimension with the border is approximately 8"x10:" which seems too convenient for modern framing, or perhaps it's just mere coincidence.

The painting is of a fishing village with fisherman in a boat in the foreground, small villages in the hills and a solitary figure on a bridge mid way up the river.   It is painted on some kind of "fabric", possibly silk which has hardened with age or perhaps linen.  It has a traditional rice paper backing and silk borders which have hardened with age.

The Chinese calligraphy reads;  "The Year of the Rat, (month of) March. In the style of the Yuen Dynasty"   One typically uses Yuan Dynasty and not Yuen, so my assumption is that Ms Ling Fu Yang used the Wade Giles form of Romanization, or more likely, used Cantonese, which would explain her use of Tien rather than Tian.

Although painted in "the style of the Yuan Dynasty", the painting itself, according to Ling Fu Yang, "was painted in the "Chin Dynasty".  I'm dumbstruck trying to figure out of her use of Chin is meant to be Ch'ing, for Qing Dynasty since Chin is more appropriate for Qin Dynasty which is certainly not the case for this work of art since Qin was thousands of years prior to the Yuan Dynasty.  Note that Ching, or Ch'ing, is also Wade Giles Romanization as well as Cantonese.

In her assessment of this painting, written on July 9, 1964, she states that the painting is "at least 260 years old; probably considerably older", which would make it at least 310 years old today, dating it no earlier than 1648 since Qing Dynasty began in 1644, to 1696 since 260 years prior to 1964 would be 1704 which was year of the Monkey, therefore, if at least 260 years old, my assumption is that it's dated between 1648 to 1696 if Ms Yang's assessment is correct, 1696 being the last Year of the Rat prior to 1708, although 1708 could also be a possibility.

Provenance:
Yang Lingfu, former curator National Palace Museum, Beijing, China.  1961, Carmel, CA.
Sold to Hazel Ann ?? - 1968
Betty Lee Morales 1968-1987

COPYRIGHT 2014 LITA KELLEY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.





For Sale:  $225,000 usd /obo + shipping & insurance

Mounted Original Chinese Watercolor Landscape on Silk - by Bīng shí - 冰石

Original Chinese watercolor landscape on silk, Figures & village in mountains.. backed & mounted.  Painted by Bīng shí, 冰石, exact date undetermined. (Year of the dragon bing chen autumn moon 丙辰秋月) (1856, 1916, 1976)
15 ¹³⁄₁₆" x 13 ½" ( Painting approx: 12 ¼" X 9 ⅞")
It's mounted onto foamboard, so it's likely to be 1976 since foamcore didn't exist prior to 1957, unless it's an earlier work that was mounted by a new owner post 50s, but I'm going to guess it was painted in 1976 since that's the last Bing Chen year as well as the only one after 1957.

Callligraphy = 丙辰秋月冰石 / Bǐng chénqiū yuè Bīng Shí

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Original Chinese Watercolor - Birds & Flowers - signed Xiàn Qī

Original Chinese watercolor painting of 2 birds flying over flowered branch, Xiàn Qī signed 憲七

Xianqi or Xian Qi ?   Tseng Hsien-chi / Zeng Xianqi  b1919 - d2000?

Date:  Ji Mao 己卯 (1819, 1879, 1939, 1999)
11 ¹³⁄₁₆" X 15 ¾ "


Writing on inside of cardboard on back of frame says "back recovered Nov. 25, 1970".  It seems possible that either the artist himself, or a former owner noted it on the cardboard when the backing was replaced, perhaps, but I have no way of really ascertaining the validity of that, but it would date this to 1939 if so.

The calligraphy reads 己卯 憲七作, "made by Xiàn Qī, Ji Mao year".   The chop stone seal contains the artist's name in seal script. 憲七

 

For Sale $3,000 usd /obo + shipping & insurance