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Subject:Re: Help with calligraphy inscription
Posted By: rat Thu, Mar 04, 2021
It's a very close copy, not easy to do. Good picture of the original is here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Palefrenier_menant_deux_chevaux_par_Han_Gan.jpg
The text is the same as appears on the original: the Huizong emperor's attribution to Han Gan, the cyclical date, and the emperor's cipher.
If this was to predate the 20th century, the artist would have had to overcome several obstacles. First, access. Extremely few people had access to pictures in the imperial collection, much less had permission and the skills to copy them. Second, given how close the copy is to the original, I would think this would have had to have been a tracing copy. That would have required a strong light source, for two reasons: (a) the silk of the original painting has darkened over time, making it difficult to pick out details that are shown clearly in the copy (b) the copy is on silk, a thicker material to see through and trace over than paper.
Things that point to a recent date include the sharp wrinkles/creases in the silk, suggesting that the picture is unmounted and unbacked. I am unaware of any examples of unbacked paintings that predate the 20th century, whereas unmounted and unbacked works are sold by street vendors at tourist sites in China today. The seals on the copy are placed strangely, seemingly to mimic several collectors' seals on the original, but on the original they are placed where they are due to space constraints that don't exist on the copy. Good quality reproductions of this picture are easily available for purchase in China today, and this picture might be the subject of large-format "how to paint a copy of famous paintings" books that are sold at art bookstores and show the original and a close copy in great detail.
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