Chinese Workshop

The Nude and the Tiger

2006

These paintings, sold to tourists, are the work of workshops in which a team will produce the original. One painter will paint the woman, another will paint the tiger, and yet another will paint the tree fronds and the silk. Each does the same painting on innumerable 'originals' and each becomes a specialist in tigers, or nudes or fronds. Lest we think that this is cheap tourism remember that the Antwerp painters had workshops back in the 17th century in which the students would paint the simpler pieces after the master had constructed the format and the main subjects Theis painting was produced on expensive Xuan paper but it is impossible to name a single artist..

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