Leisurely Watching Children Collect Willow-Flowers

Chou Ch'en, Ming dynasty

Original: Hanging-scroll, Ink and colours on silk, 116.6 cm X 63.5 cm

Signed by the painter with two seals

Collector's seals: five Ch'ien-lung chien-ts'ang seals

　Chou Ch'en (?1450-?1535) was a native of Kiangsu. His style-name was Shun-ch'ing, his sobriquet Tung-ts'un. In painting landscapes, Chou Ch'en took Ch'en Hsien (1405-1496) as his teacher and based his style on the work of the Sung masters Li Ch'eng, Kuo Hsi, Ma Yuan, and Hisa Kuei, thus allowing his brushwork to become mature and confident. He excelled at painting figures, portraying antique attitudes and unusual dispositions. His paintings, whether closely or loosely structured, are powerfully expressive. He later transmitted his art to T'ang Yin and Ch'iu Ying. Many of T'ang Yin's extant paintings are marked as imitations of Chou Ch'en's brushwork.