Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries


Visitors' Forum

Asian Art  Forums - Detail List
Asian Art Forums

Message Listing by Date:
Message Index | Back | Post a New Message | Search | Private Mail | FAQ
Subject:楊鑑州 Yan Jianzhou
Posted By: Athanasios Tue, Jan 28, 2025 IP: 1.145.185.161

Im seeking any information on these two prints by the artist 楊鑑州 Yan Jianzhou. I found his name through an earlier post on this platform. What are these two paintings of his? They were in the papers of a post-war architect I am researching. Thanks







Subject:Re: 楊鑑州 Yan Jianzhou
Posted By: rat Wed, Jan 29, 2025

Don't see any reference to an artist by this name online. The pictures are genre scenes of beautiful women, likely referring to literary characters. The first has a title, "Apricot flowers fill the hall"; the other has a dedicatory inscription to someone. The dates correspond to 1928 and 1936. Both indicate that they are imitating the style of other painters, who are referred to by nicknames I don't recognize or see a convincing reference to online. The first picture's reference is repeated verbatim in this picture (https://www.waddingtons.ca/auction/asian-art-aug-27-2020/gallery/lot/67/), which is inscribed by someone named Yang Tiemei. The Yang is the same surname as appears in your pictures' seals, but the paintings are stylistically different.

Subject:Re: 楊鑑州 Yan Jianzhou
Posted By: Athanasios Wed, Jan 29, 2025

Thank you for responding. I had assumed the artist was Yan Jianzhou because someone on this art pkatform identified him a while back in this link with a common seal and drawing style. They could have it wrong though and I'd appreciate your thoughts on that. https://www.asianart.com/phpforum/index.php?method=detailAll&Id=113140
Yang Tiemei's seal looks different as does the painting style. Do you know what is written on the 2nd painting? (or is it a woodblock print?). I asked a Chinese neighbour but he cant make it out. Thanks again

Subject:Re: 楊鑑州 Yang Jianzhou
Posted By: rat Thu, Jan 30, 2025

(fyi, the surname is romanized as Yang rather than Yan)

Seals look quite the same, though the calligraphy in the picture from the 2018 post seems more relaxed and therefore appealing, and the women in it are less crudely painted (though the women in the 2018 post have a sweetness to their facial depictions that I associate with pictures from the 1980s onward; not sure what to make of that observation). The inscription in your second picture gives the year equivalent to 1928 and mentions the first part of a month/season whose name has been crossed out as an error. Not entirely sure about the top of the third line but it relates to the painter saying that he is painting in the style of another painter who is referred to by an art name ending in 伯大山人, which doesn't ring a bell for me. the fourth line states that your artist, using his own art name, 龍泉居士, painted this picture at his Shanghai studio. Am guessing given the difference in style between these two pictures and one you found posted here from 2018 that they are from different hands employed by a workshop (named Yang Jianzhou?) that produced genre scenes like this from literature/history/legend. They were pretty common in the Republican years.


Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries |