Painting Admiring fish

The second picture from an album of Chinese paintings of the everyday lives of court ladies. Girls admire a goldfish while a child plays beside flowers. In the background, inscriptions refer to the intoxicating fragrance of flowers and the joy of birdsong.

Small paintings with lurid colours were usually produced in workshops where individual artists were tasked with the production of a part of the painting. They painted in gouache technique, sketching the figures with the help of models, which they then painted. When the painting was finished, it was placed on ordinary paper to fix the material and the edges were wrapped with silk ribbons or painted paper. The pictures were then bound together in an album, usually in groups of twelve, with each album featuring a single subject. (NVS)

Information
Object history

Place of manufacture: Canton (Guangdong 廣東 )

Material description: paper from Tetrapanex papyrifera (tongcao 通草) tree, silk

Manufacturing technique: gouache, watercolour

Dimensions: height: 26 cm, length: 37 cm

Inscription: 為愛鳥聲多種樹. 因探花氣不關門. Wei ai niaosheng duo zhong shu. Yin tan hua qi bu guanmen. (Plant different kinds of trees to enjoy the birds, don't close the door to smell the fragrant flowers.)

No. of parts: the second of twelve paintings

Current owner: Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Date of the last acquisition: 1963

Last acquisition method: donation

Previous owners and periods of ownership: Ivan Skušek, Jr. and Tsuneko Kondō Kawase - Marija Skušek, National Museum of Slovenia, Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Object condition, handling and damage: The edges of the paper are slightly torn, and the tear is also visible near the bottom of the painting.

History of exhibition: Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Ljubljana, 31. 8. 2006–3. 9. 2007 (exhibition Srečevanja s Kitajsko: 200 let slovenskih odkrivanj kitajske kulture [Encounters with China: 200 years of Slovenian discovery of Chinese culture])

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