Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

A catalogue of Chinese paintings from the Reyes Collection by Shelagh Vainker (published Oxford, 1996).

Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by Shelagh Vainker

Publications online: 141 objects

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Boats on Lake Tai

  • Literature notes

    Qian Songyan from Yixing in prosperous Jiangsu province was a traditional landscape painter who worked mostly in Nanjing, producing in the 1950s and early 1960s many industrial landscapes regarded as combining romanticism with realism. This quiet scene represents Lake Tai in the Jiangnan (Jiangsu and Zhejiang) region of "fish and rice" referred to the inscription.
  • Description

    Qian Songyan was born in Yixing, Jiangsu province. He studied painting and calligraphy at a private school before attending a further education college. He subsequently taught at several schools, but spent most of his career at Wuxi College of Fine Arts in Jiangsu. Qian is known primarily as a traditionalist landscapist under the influence of the Ming and Qing literati painters. In 1960 he became one of the chief figures in the newly founded Jiangsu Chinese Painting Academy. That Autumn, Qian spent three months travelling across six provinces to develop new ways of depicting landscape, together with Fu Baoshi, the head of the Academy, and other Academy artists including Ya Ming, Song Wenzhi and Wei Zixi. Later these artists are known as the ‘Jiangsu group’ for their extensive travels around the country and their subject of nationalistic celebration.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaChinaJiangsu province Nanjing (place of creation)
    AsiaChinaJiangsu province Lake Tai (subject)
    Date
    probably 1960s
    Artist/maker
    Qian Songyan (1899 - 1985) (artist)
    Material and technique
    ink and colour on paper; mounted on layers of paper, framed with ling silk pieces; backed with paper scroll
    Dimensions
    frame 86.5 x 52.5 x 1.5 cm (height x width x depth)
    mount 83.6 x 49.3 cm sight size (height x width)
    painting 54.3 x 35 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Presented in honour of the forthcoming 70th birthdays of Jose Mauricio and Angelita Trinidad Reyes, 1995.
    Accession no.
    EA1995.233
  • Further reading

    Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 24 September-1 December 1996, Modern Chinese Paintings: The Reyes Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Vainker, Shelagh (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1996), no. 69 on p. 54, p. 8, illus. p. 54 fig. 69

Past Exhibition

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Location

    • currently in research collection

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Publications online

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