A catalogue of the Ashmolean collection of Chinese paintings by Shelagh Vainker (published Oxford, 2000).
Li Keran, from Jiangsu province, studied at the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou. In 1947, he went to Beijing and spent 10 years as a pupil of Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong, the great masters of traditional painting. He himself taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing where the Czech, ‘Comrade Bei Yajie’, named in the inscription as the recipient of the painting, was a student.
In this painting, the Demon Queller looks back at a demon boy hiding in a tree with a big smile on his face, as if they were playing ‘peek-a-boo’. Zhong Kui playing with demons is a popular subject of literati paintings in the Qing period. The demon is probably a metaphor of ‘old words’ mentioned in the artist’s seal on the painting, which reads ‘old words must be discarded’.
Vainker, Shelagh, Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2000), no. 74 on p. 92, illus. p. 93 fig. 74
Zhong Kui
Zhong Kui, or Shōki in Japanese, is a figure from Chinese folklore who appeared to the ailing 8th century Chinese Emperor Xuanzong in a dream and dispatched the demons that were haunting him. Shōki promised the Emperor that he would rid the world of demons.
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