毕荣九 Bi Rongjiu

[Pat - 查尚杰]

毕荣九 Bi Rongjiu
Bi Rongjiu, alias Ning Qing, was the founder of Lu School Inside Painting Art. He was born in Boshan, Shandong Province, the hometown of colored glaze in 1874 and died in 1925.
Since childhood, he was raised by his uncle because his father had died. From that time he began to learn the skill of painting and civilization under his uncle. Thanks to his clever alertness and loving study he gradually mastered the fine arts skills. When an adult he opened “Kun Shan Tang” and worked with paint doing calligraphy and painting, mounting the paintings, and statue etc. Later inside painting art spread to Boshan from Beijing and he quickly became interested so he made “copying crystal” bottle using high quality crystal glass, produced locally, and ground the inside surface of the bottle with iron, sand, and emery, and painted inside the bottle, which gained him great success.
Bi Rongjiu specialized in calligraphy and painting. The subject of his works was comprehensive, such as mountain and water, portraits, and animals etc. with the vivid and lifelike characteristics and fantastic conceptions. He could write poems and signed well in the bottle with the scholar’s style. At the time Zhang Yao, an important official in Shandong, got a bottle with Cloud & Dragon by Bi Rongjiu, which made the official very happy. He then presented it as a treasure to Dowager Ci-xi. Ci-xi appreciated the bottle very much and praised it highly. As a result Bi Rongjiu became very famous and more and more officials and distinguished personages often went to “Kun Shan Tang”, even many foreign merchantmen also visited him to order or buy his works.
Bi Rongjiu was honest and tolerant and liked to make friends and did not have conservative ideas like other craftsmen. He taught and told what he knew to anyone who came to seek his advice. His apprentices were Wang Zhifu, Zhang Wentang, Yuan Yongqian and Yan Benli. Generation after generation the Lu school of inside painting art has achieved so much!!
Bi Rongjiu devoted his life to inside painting art and became the Great Master. He was the first one in Shangdong who began painting inside painted snuff bottles. His great contribution will always be recorded in the history of inside painting art.

Quoted from CIPMA - Chinese Inside Painting of the Modern Age - page 34

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Pat

Please send  to me  as   word-doc  or   pdf

More  great   stuff  ( and so  far  Bi  Rongjiu is  missing  from   my  DB)

Cheers  Peter

[George]

When an adult he opened “Kun Shan Tang” and worked with paint doing calligraphy and painting, mounting the paintings, and statue etc. Later inside painting art spread to Boshan from Beijing and he quickly became interested so he made “copying crystal” bottle using high quality crystal glass, produced locally, and ground the inside surface of the bottle with iron, sand, and emery, and painted inside the bottle, which gained him great success.

A friend of mine via Facebook shared this bottle with me.. He believes it painted by Chen Kunshan. A name I have never heard.. 

Can someone help translate the script on this bottle, and perhaps there is some connection between "Ken shan" that he sees on the bottle, and Kun Shantang that Pat is talking about here ?

[YT]

Dear George,

Is there anyway of getting a close up shoot on the 3rd pic on the words?

The 4th pic did read Chen Kun Shan.

Cheers,
YT

[George]

Here ya go YT..

[YT]

Dear George,

I cannot read the characters as it is slightly smudged. Hope the other Chinese experts here can chip in later.

Cheers,
YT

[Steven]

Hi George,

It could be a fake Cheng zhongsan bottle, altho maybe you could let the owner send you a higher res photo on the last one.

The bottle is pretty new, the painting style is after 80s.

A tip to ID the painting, if you look at the signature, some strokes are much thicker than others, that means it painted by brush, and the painter can't control the brush well, if you look at the old bottles painted by sticks, it will always have same thickness on the strokes.  that is a easy way to ID the brushes.

Steven.

[YT]

Dear George,

The third pic shows 佳居图 and 牟前年作when it is painted. But because of the way it is written and the unusual/wrong way of writing the date, I have to agree with Steven that it is fake.
The Chinese wording is given by a friend fr China but she said that it is too blur to be 100% sure.

Cheers,
YT

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Pat,
     This is interesting material on Bi Rongjiu. What is the source?  I would like to add it to my info on him, but I need to be able to quote a source. Thank you.
Best,
Shabbat Shalom,
   Joey

毕荣九 Bi Rongjiu
Bi Rongjiu, alias Ning Qing, was the founder of Lu School Inside Painting Art. He was born in Boshan, Shandong Province, the hometown of colored glaze in 1874 and died in 1925.
Since childhood, he was raised by his uncle because his father had died. From that time he began to learn the skill of painting and civilization under his uncle. Thanks to his clever alertness and loving study he gradually mastered the fine arts skills. When an adult he opened “Kun Shan Tang” and worked with paint doing calligraphy and painting, mounting the paintings, and statue etc. Later inside painting art spread to Boshan from Beijing and he quickly became interested so he made “copying crystal” bottle using high quality crystal glass, produced locally, and ground the inside surface of the bottle with iron, sand, and emery, and painted inside the bottle, which gained him great success.
Bi Rongjiu specialized in calligraphy and painting. The subject of his works was comprehensive, such as mountain and water, portraits, and animals etc. with the vivid and lifelike characteristics and fantastic conceptions. He could write poems and signed well in the bottle with the scholar’s style. At the time Zhang Yao, an important official in Shandong, got a bottle with Cloud & Dragon by Bi Rongjiu, which made the official very happy. He then presented it as a treasure to Dowager Ci-xi. Ci-xi appreciated the bottle very much and praised it highly. As a result Bi Rongjiu became very famous and more and more officials and distinguished personages often went to “Kun Shan Tang”, even many foreign merchantmen also visited him to order or buy his works.
Bi Rongjiu was honest and tolerant and liked to make friends and did not have conservative ideas like other craftsmen. He taught and told what he knew to anyone who came to seek his advice. His apprentices were Wang Zhifu, Zhang Wentang, Yuan Yongqian and Yan Benli. Generation after generation the Lu school of inside painting art has achieved so much!!
Bi Rongjiu devoted his life to inside painting art and became the Great Master. He was the first one in Shangdong who began painting inside painted snuff bottles. His great contribution will always be recorded in the history of inside painting art.

[George]

Yes, as soon as I saw and posted the pic for signature and date scripts a big red flag went off because of the wide brush strokes.

Thank you   

[OIB]

YT,

From the formation of the Chinese characters, my guess for the dating is 辛酉 year ( 1921 0r 1981 ).

Inn Bok

[YT]

Thanks Inn Bok, my Chinese is still very limited.
I think the 1981 date is more appropriate.

Cheers,
YT

[Pat - 查尚杰]

I agree this is a fake bottle. 

Joey

The info comes from the CIPMA book, if my memory serves me right, 

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Pat,
     Thank you.
     It is on p.34 of CIPMA. I found it as soon as I read your message.
I had thought it sounded like Chi-Com Agit-Prop prose. I tightened and cleaned it up, and will use it, with the proper reference, when I next do a catalogue.
Again,
 Thanks,
   Joey

I agree this is a fake bottle. 

Joey

The info comes from the CIPMA book, if my memory serves me right,