The Four Seasons
Gao Qipei is well known for painting with his fingers rather than using a brush. He adopted the technique later in his career, having previously painted landscapes and figures in a meticulous style. In this painting he depicts fish and plants associated with the different seasons alongside ancient bronze ritual vessels, combining the natural and the archaic. The first known finger-painter is Zhang Zhao who was active around AD 750, and the practice continued through a small number of artists, mostly regarded as eccentrics.
Details
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Title
The Four Seasons
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Artist/maker
attributed to Gao Qipei (1660 - 1734) -
Associated place
China (place of creation) -
Date
1660 - 1734 -
Material and technique
ink and colour on paper, probably finger painted
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Material index
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Technique index
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Object type
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Dimensions
30.48 x 50.8 cm (height x width) -
No. of items
1
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Credit line
Presented by Sir John Addis, 1977.
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Museum location
Museum department
Eastern Art
Accession no.
EA1977.6
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Catalogue text
Gao Qipei grew up in Jianchang (present Nancheng) in Jiangxi province, though his family had Manchurian connections. He had a successful career as an official in southern China but was better known as a painter. His earlier works were predominantly figure paintings and landscapes in meticulous traditional style, though he later built up a reputation as an eccentric and is particularly well-known for finger-painting. The eigth-century painter Zhang Zhao was the first to use finger instread of brush, but the technique became closely associated with Gao.
In: Vainker, Shelagh, Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2000)
Further reading
Vainker, Shelagh, Chinese Paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2000), no. 29 on p. 51, illus. pp. 51-53 fig. 29
Reference URL
