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Subject:Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: MB Wed, May 11, 2022 IP: 189.120.78.27

Dear painting experts,
I would like to share this fan for your appreciation.
I've already posted a pic of the inscriptions here years ago and Mr. I Nagy identified the date (1751) and the signature.
Signature and seal indicates Zou Yigui (1686-1772) as the author. But I'm not if it is original. It is a fan with 35,5 x 65 cm

I would love to know the opinion of the chinese painting experts regarding authenticity. All comments are welcome.
Regards,
MB










Subject:Re: Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: Peter Thu, May 12, 2022

to me it looks fine. seal and signature are not to dispute and bonhams sold a landscape in this style.
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20954/lot/712/
If you forge such a complex fan painting the name is probably not the one you would sign it with.

Peter

Subject:Re: Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: rat Thu, May 12, 2022

I did not pay attention to the seal, but I'll definitely dispute the handwriting! Take a closer look and tell me how the repetitious horizontals in the date can possibly be by an accomplished court painter like Zou? Compare the same year as written in this picture of his: https://www.sohu.com/a/473667202_121124708

There's also very little modulation in the brushstrokes of the fan's inscription compared with the Bonham's picture (which itself they specify as only "attributed to" Zou) or reliable inscriptions by him. The 小 character on the fan inscription is poorly written and the 鄒 character, the artist's own surname, is _incorrectly_ written.

Subject:Re: Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: rat Thu, May 12, 2022

Sorry, but your fan is not by Zou. He is best known for his "bird and flower" pictures but here are two of his landscapes that were in the imperial collection, the first one, like yours, dated to 1571: (1) https://www.sohu.com/a/473667202_121124708 and (2) http://chinapalacemuseum.com/%E6%B8%85%E9%84%92%E4%B8%80%E6%A1%82%E7%95%AB%E5%B1%B1%E6%B0%B4-%E8%BB%B8-%E6%95%85-%E7%95%AB-002533-00000/

The second painting can be downloaded to enlarge and view in greater detail by clicking on the wide orange/red button below the image here: https://theme.npm.edu.tw/opendata/DigitImageSets.aspx?sNo=04013477

There are significant differences in brushwork, both in painting style, and in handwriting, between your picture and these two.

Subject:Re: Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: MB Thu, May 12, 2022

Dear peter and rat,
Thank you so much for taking a look and sharing your views, your help is always appreciated.
This fan came in a pair. The second one is signed as Wu Wei (1459-1508), with a date of 1484. But I guess that it is the same situation about the diferences in style. Although both paintings looks good to my untrained eye, I agree with rat's observation.
Still, I wonder why someone just signed this relatively good paintings with two random artist's signature, as peter said.
Maybe because they are "old" artists and not so known in the West? And harder to find references? (Before Google exists lol)

Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.
Here are the other fan.







Subject:Re: Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: rat Fri, May 13, 2022

Yes, this fan is also not by Wu. Here are some of his better-known pictures; note the sense of nervous energy conveyed by the brushwork of the trees and rock faces in the two landscapes (despite the relative placidity of the scenes otherwise): https://kknews.cc/culture/3a5my3o.html

There's a good deal going on in your fan, but it's very different from Wu's approach.

The calligraphy of the fan's inscription also has a deadening sameness (sorry) to it that is uncharacteristic of either Wu's signatures or the work of other calligraphers. (Also note that Wu normally didn't sign his regular name, he used one of what's called his "hao", a nickname, in his case 小僊 rather than his actual name 吳偉)

Famous painter names are added to unrelated pictures for various reasons. Traditionally, as you noted, access to genuine works was extremely limited, but I don't think your pictures are that old. Commonly, anonymous works had the name of well known painters added to them by dealers trying to increase the price they could charge for them. And there's also a market in China for decorative things with famous names on them, and people aren't too concerned whether they are by the named artist (or emperor) or not, they are just something nice to look at. There is actually a fair number of forgeries and mislabeled pictures with Zou Yigui's name on them, usually bird and flower hanging scrolls rather than landscape fans. I haven't seen many with Wu Wei's name though; I'm not sure why he was chosen for this fan.

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Subject:Re: Chinese landscape painting on fan - Zou Yigui?
Posted By: MB Mon, May 16, 2022

Dear Peter and rat,
Thank you so much for looking at the fans and for the comments. I always learn a lot from you. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.


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