Chinese Ancestor Portrait Painting

Butterflies in Amazonian Rain Forest Morpho Peleides. Oil on canvas by Columbian artist, Carlos Nariño, who lives and works in Paris since 1985. Abstract ...

Miniature Continental landscape, oil on panel, depicting house and shored boat, initialed ''W'' lower right.

Miniature continental landscape, oil on panel, depicting house and shored boat, initialled ''W'' lower right.

The midcentury still life painting is oil on masonite and is signed in the lower left corner. The focus of the composition is a yellow bowl of ba...

James Neill is a contemporary fine artist who specialises in drawing. His work deals with ideas of abstraction and reconstruction. All of the drawings are highly technical and are cr...

Riccardo Magni signed gouache on paper, a beautifully illustrated pastel of an interior with furniture from the 40's done in the way only the v...

A Chinese 'Ancestor Portrait' oil on canvas laid down on board, depicting a seated dignitary. The Chinese characters identify the artist at Giuseppe Castiglione...

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

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

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 f...

Qing Dynasty Chinese Ancestor painting. Antique Chinese Ancestor paintings are sought after for their warm colors and traditional pa...

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...