Painters of the Ch'ing Court
Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Framed 18"x24"                                                                           ( Original is Color and Ink on Silk; size: 69"x37" , Wallscroll )

This set of twelve paintings depicts, with a spicing of imagination, activities which typify each month of the lunar calendar. It bears no signatures but is plainly a work of the Ch'ing dynasty academy. Judging from the style it is a collaborative effort by painter T'ang Tai, Ting Kuan-p'eng and other painters of the Ch'ien-lung court (1736-1796).

The winter cold becomes steadily more severe ; the rivers are covered with first ice and the mountain passes are desolate ; only the evergreen trees keep their colour. In a pavilion by the water a tutor prepares to thrash a lazy young student while others intervene on one side or the other. In the next hall sits an oldman sunk in zen-meditation ; his hands pressed together, he quietly answers a man who has come to pay his respects. In a courtyard behind this women and children play football and hide-and-seek. On the opposite shore a gaily dressed procession wends through the frosty woods. With their animals and birds they appear to be a circus on the move.