Thursday, November 13, 2014

Peking Opera Figures

Album of 100 Portraits of Personages from Chinese Opera

Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date: late 19th–early 20th century
Culture: China
Medium: Album of fifty leaves; ink, color, and gold on silk
Artist: Unidentified


Chinese Opera figure l



Chinese Opera figure b



Chinese Opera figure m



Chinese Opera figure i



Chinese Opera figure c



Chinese Opera figure h



Chinese Opera figure f



Chinese Opera figure



late 19th century watercolour sketch of member of Peking Opera company



Chinese Opera figure k



Chinese Opera figure d



Chinese Opera figure g



Chinese Opera figure e



Chinese Opera figure o



Chinese Opera figure n



Chinese Opera figure j


"In the opera boom of the late nineteenth century, albums were turned to a new purpose: documenting the variety and vibrancy of stage culture in all its multicolored splendor. This album records in detail the makeup and costume of one hundred characters drawn from nine plays. Each character is identified with an accompanying inscription, and the plays are named at the top right of nine of the leaves in slightly larger script."

6 comments :

nickyskye said...

Omg, fabulous!!! One gem after another!

peacay said...

Hi Nicky, long time no speaky! Yeah, opera is a veritable gold-mine for the mad and the bad of sketch/illustration art.

Eric said...

Don't know if you received previous comment... We miss you Peacay. You always open my eyes. All the best to you. eric - Belgium

peacay said...

Thanks for the kind words Eric! I'm around, though generally more active on twitter I suppose.

A lot of uni /library sites represent themselves well online these days PLUS I can get lazy. But the bug usually comes back and there are still thousands of links and hints and ideas resting in the background so I daresay I'll be on deck here again sometime. Best to wait for the inspiration rather than forcing it out of habit of pride or a misplaced sense of obligation.

Watch this space! And happy new year mate!!

peacay said...

Thanks for the kind words Eric! I'm around, though generally more active on twitter I suppose.

A lot of uni /library sites represent themselves well online these days PLUS I can get lazy. But the bug usually comes back and there are still thousands of links and hints and ideas resting in the background so I daresay I'll be on deck here again sometime. Best to wait for the inspiration rather than forcing it out of habit of pride or a misplaced sense of obligation.

Watch this space! And happy new year mate!!

fiefoe said...

I got curious about one of the names of the play, 《胭脂虎》 ('rouged tiger') and that turned out to be a very unusual story. It's about a prostitute Shi Zhongyu who fell in love with an underling of General Li Jingrang. The general got wind of the affair and got mad. He had them arrested and want them executed, but Shi actually is a regular Amazon with magic powers. Her magic stopped the executioner's sword and she ridiculed the general in public. To top that off, she rode off to capture the enemy general and was the heroine of the day.

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