Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board



Message Board
Asian Art Forums

AsianArt.com Main Forum Message Index | Back | Post a New Message | Search | Private Mail | FAQ
Group: Message Board
Assistance reading text / opinion on painting with Min Zhen seal

Posted By: Jimmy James
Posted Date: Aug 31, 2020 (11:46 AM)

Message
A while back I acquired from a local thrift shop a few older-looking pieces of Chinese artwork (some paintings, a long scroll of text, etc.). I have a number of questions about the pieces, and I'll probably make separate posts for each one.

For this post, I'm enclosing photos of a painting that bears the seal of Min Zhen. I'm enclosing one photo of the whole work, and one of the text / seal that is at the top left of the work.

I have a few questions about this work.

One, what does the accompanying text read? I've tried various tools but my untrained eyes find it very difficult to input the stylized calligraphic text.

Two, the painting appears to be a watercolor on paper, but what is going on with the very frayed edges? Is the paper glued onto some kind of Canvas backing? It seems somewhat similar to the example at the Cleveland Museum of Art (linked), except the piece I've got has extremely frayed edges instead of nicely woven material that surrounds the paper.

Three, is there any chance it's actually real? There are a few factors that, to me, imply it may not be. The first of which is that it just seems extremely unlikely that I would randomly find a real 18th century piece of art at a thrift store. Second, Min Zhen was known for painting portraits, and this is a landscape. A Google search for landscapes by Min Zhen, though, does reveal that he painted those as well (with an identical seal to what's seen here -- see the linked photo from a piece at the Cleveland Museum of Art). Three, it seems odd that the only seal present is that of Min Zhen. There are no collector seals or any other seals. I've certainly not looked at all the Min Zhen holdings in all the collections, but in my searching I've not seen any pieces in museums or elsewhere that don't have at least one other seal on them.

I've enjoyed looking around on the forum as I learn more about this stuff, and I look forward to any input. Thanks!

-Jimmy





Link :Example of Cleveland Museum of Art





Note that we are now reviewing postings before posting due to the large volume of SPAM and inappropriate postings on the forum. The validation process may take up to 12 hours.
Post a Reply
Name:
Email:
Group: Message Board
Subject:
Message:
Link URL:
Enter here the complete URL of any site, page or image you would like to show other visitors.
URL Title:
Enter here the title of the link you've given above. This will appear to the visitor. Eg., if you are linking another picture, enter "Another picture". The link will not appear without a title.
Image URL:
Enter here the URL of an image if it is already uploaded on the web. The image will appear with your posting. Do not post pictures which are not yours without permission from the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of each poster to make sure they have permission to use any photos they post.
Image: You may upload up to three images. If you would like to upload more images to this message please do so by replying to this same message.

Please make sure the file type is JPEG or GIF and the filename does not contain spaces.





Use the Browse button to find an image (jpg or gif) on a local drive on your computer to upload for including with your message. Do not upload images with file names containing spaces. Please do not upload files larger than 500 KB in size. Do not post pictures which are not yours without permission from the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of each poster to make sure they have permission to use any photos they post. Check the "email notification" box below if you would like to be notified of any responses to your message.
Check here for email notification.
Security Code: Security Image: please enter the text appears in this image.

Please type in the code you see in the image directly above this input box.
Responses:



Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board