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A beautiful manuscript map of Peking painted in the second half of the nineteenth century. The details of each street are precisely drawn using a very fine brush. The palaces, major buildings, lakes, city walls and gates are shown. The hand painted colour is over all bright and harmonious. Signed in red, Zhou Peichuen, lower left. This is the work of a talented artist and each line shows a steady hand. The calligraphy is particularly neat.
The Chinese artist Zhou Peichun, Zhou Pei Chuen or Zhou Peichuan was working in the second half of the nineteenth century. His name appears in English translation with different spelling by various museums and auction houses. Carl Crossman in his book The Decorative Arts of the China Trade 1991 lists Chou Pai Chuen as a Chinese painter, who painted on pith paper, working for the Western market in the 1890s in Peking. The Hong Kong Museum of Art have Zhou Peichuen paintings in their permanent collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London have paintings by Zhou Peichun in their permanent collection. His paintings have appeared in auction with both Christie's and Sotheby's with different spelling.
Crossman gives an excellent list of Chinese export painters with a note of those known to have painted on pith paper. These include Tingqua, Sunqua and Youqua. From 1757 until 1842 Canton was the only Chinese port open to trade with the west and it is no surprise that of the eight studios identified by Crossman as producing works on pith, six were in Canton. The whereabouts of one was unknown and the eighth was that of Chou Pai Chuen who was exceptional on two counts, firstly because he was a talented artist still painting on pith at the end of the nineteenth century and secondly because his studio was in Peking.
While living in Peking the famous writer and collector George Ernest Morrison commissioned Zhou Peichun to do some paintings for him in the early twentieth century.
Early manuscript maps of Peking are rare.
Reference: Crossman, Carl The Decorative Arts of the China Trade 1991
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