Pair of Chinese Ancestor Portraits in Gilt Bamboo Form Frames

Pair of Chinese Portraits in Red Painted & Gilt Frames.

Beautiful original Chinese Ancestor Portrait with a Chinese married couple great faded colors.

These paintings are from a traditional Chinese Art that dates back to antiquity and which allows descendants to preserve a connection with their ancestors. Festive attire dress and Mandarin hats...

Believing that the departed continue to hold influence over the lives of the living, many Chinese households honor their ancestors in private family rituals, invoking their spirits for long life, health, and prosperity. Commemorative portraits, which came into vogue in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, were commissioned specifically for ancestor worship and were believed to house the spirits of the deceased. When properly cared for, one's ancestors were believed to be a powerful source of honor, protection, and good luck. This pair of ancestor portraits was hand-painted in the late-19th century and beautifully depicts a Qing-dynasty couple. While some ancestral portraits offer a more stylized representation of one's ancestors, this particular pair is painted with incredible realism and life-like expressions. Rather than depict the pair in a regal hall wearing elaborate finery, the couple is shown in a quiet home environment, seated at either end of a square tea table. Their surroundings are minimal, practically undecorated, and they wear simple, matching blue silk robes. Two young children stand beside them, each trying to capture the attention of their grandparent. We love the painting's close attention to detail and the glimpse it offers of Qing-dynasty interiors - from the carved apron of the marble-top table to the red silk lotus slippers...

Antique Chinese ancestor portrait on canvas, Qing dynasty, showing the patriarch and the matriarch Portrait with nice, faded, warm ...

Chinese ancestor portrait of a Mandarin Dignitary. Antique tempera on paper painting of a Mandarin Dignitary wearing a red court dress and s...

Theo Meier (1908-1982) “A Balinese woman with offerings” Signed, dated '36 and annotated Mankok (the name of the sitter) lower left Sanguine on paper, measures: 57 x 41.5 cm In a handmade and hand painted frame with address: Max Kno¨ll, Herberggasse 4/1, Basel. Provenance: Private collection, Basel (acquired directly from the artist) Private collection, London Note: Theo Meier was born in Basel, where he attended art school and became a successful portrait painter. However, after visiting an exhibition in Basel of Tahitian paintings by Paul Gaugin, he decided to follow in Gaugin’s footsteps and go to the South Pacific. To finance his voyage, he founded a club in which every member pledged a monthly sum in return of which they could choose one of Meier’s paintings upon his return. In 1932, at the age of 24, he embarked on his voyage to the South Sea. In Tahiti, he certainly discovered the beauty of the colours of the tropical world but the simplicity of the inhabitants, he had seen in Gaugin’s paintings turned out to be more in the artist’s fantasy than in reality. He returned to Basel but in 1935 again was on his way to the South Sea. In 1936 he arrived in Bali, planning to stay there for two or three weeks, but thirty years later he was still there. In Bali “a delirium laid hold of me which even today has not subsided”, he was to write much later. The present drawing was made during his first “delirius” year in Bali. In Bali, he settled and found inspiration and friendship with other artists including Walter Spies...

Chinese households honor their ancestors in private family rituals, invoking their spirits for long life, health, and prosperity. Commemorative portraits, which came into vogue in th...

This intricately detailed composition is a late-Qing dynasty ancestor portrait depicting several generations of a family's male ancestry. Or...

Set of twelve early 20th century Chinese Gouache paintings depicting everyday life of various craftsmen. Examples are a barber, food vendors, ...