Details
CollectionChinese Collection
Object numberC2000-0002-004-0
TitlePaying a Debt of Gratitude 一余王孙感干金阿母歉
CreatorQian Hui’an 钱慧安 (1833-1911)
DescriptionQian Hui’an was a native of the Pudong district in Shanghai, China. He had been active in the art and cultural activities of the city as early as the 1850s, during the formative period of Shanghai painting. In 1909, he was elected president of the Yu Garden of Painting and Calligraphy Charitable Association, one of the most prestigious art groups in Shanghai. He was well known for painting female figures in the elegant, elongated style that was fashionable in the late Qing. However, Qian also achieved great success in communicating a wide variety of folk subjects and themes, attributed to his propensity for incorporating new elements into traditional Chinese compositions, such as Western shading and architectural perspective.
This painting is based on the story about General Han Xin (c. 231–196 BCE), who repaid the kindness of a bowl of rice offered to him as a poor, orphaned youth with thousands of taels of silver, and conveys the didactic message of expressing one’s gratitude and returning kindness.
Qian painted this round fan in 1873, in a relaxed style that precedes the angular strokes that would come to be representative of his oeuvre in the 1870s. Noteworthy is his idiosyncratic representation of faces, as shown on the female figure in this painting. The present condition of this painting is good.
Production date 1873 - 1873
Object categoryChinese painting
MaterialInk & Colour on Silk
Dimensions
H: 27.9 cm
W: 27.7 cm
W: 27.7 cm