Sylvia Lee, Ph.D. (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Kate Lingley, Associate Professor (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Department of Art and Art History)

In seventeenth-century China, courtesans (mingji 名妓) and gentry women painters had different motivations to paint, and their paintings circulated outside their boudoirs. Many women painters, such as Chen Shu 陳書 (1660-1736), used their paintings to support their families financially.

These talented women and their families were involved in creating and presenting the painters’ artistic personae. Through examples of inscriptions on Chen Shu’s paintings, we see how Chen Shu’s son, Qian Chenqun 錢陳群 (1686-1774), used her paintings and persona to reinforce his relationship with the Qianlong 乾隆 emperor and gain prestige for the family and future generations. He constructed his mother’s persona as a virtuous mother and a good wife, and, simultaneously, presented himself as a loyal subject and a filial son. He thus not only helped promote Chen Shu’s virtue but also successfully maintained a long-term relationship with the emperor and negotiated prestige for himself and the Qian family even after his retirement.

Sylvia W.S. Lee earned her PhD in Art History at the Chinese U of Hong Kong and her MA in Art History from UHM. She has taught at the City U of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include women painters and garden culture in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Her published works include “Business and Fame: The Operations of Seventeenth-century Chinese Garden Builders” in Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, and “’Co-branding’ a Cainü and a Garden” in Nan Nü. Dr Lee is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled, Payoffs from Her Paintings and Her Artistic Persona: How a Seventeenth-century Chinese Woman’s Paintings and Persona Benefited Various Participants in the Art Scene.

Kate A. Lingley is Associate Professor of Art History at UHM.  Her research focuses on Buddhist votive sculpture of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, with a particular interest in the social history of religious art in medieval China.  Her articles in this area have been published in Asia Major, Ars Orientalis, Early Medieval China, and Archives of Asian Art, among others. She is currently working on a book manuscript on the lives of Buddhist women in medieval China, as seen through the votive monuments they dedicated.

This talk is co-sponsored with the UHM Department of Art & Art History.

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