Expert: Jeni Andrews-Fraser - 4/29/2008

Question
in the early 1970's my family lived in Hong Kong and my mother purchased an oil painting by S Tsui of the junkets in Hong Kong harbour. I was hoping you might have some information on the artist as my mother has asked me to find some but unfortunately i have not been able to find any. Thanks

Answer
Hello James - and thank you for your question.  My expertise is in the history of Western art/architecture, so I am no authority on 'Oriental' art, although I do have passing knowledge of the techniques, styles and major artists.  

Depending on where you live, contact the British Museum (Oriental studies department) - or Met (in NY) for some expert advice in this area.  Otherwise, there are some excellent websites that offer overviews (and sometimes quite specific) information about the type of art you are interested in.  

Here are some suggestions:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ming/hd_ming.htm
http://www.asia-art.net/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/index.html

More specifically, you might have a look at the Hong Kong Fine Art Museum's website http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/english/collections/ecollections.html - (an excellent museum - I have been there and note that there is more Chinese art than Western art, so maybe they can offer you answers to your questions.  You can always contact the museum's curators for answers ... and perhaps you'll find something on the website that looks like your painting or is by the same artist to focus your research.)

Enjoy your 'journey' - it's fascinating stuff (and has an impact on Western painting and design round about the 1860s when the Impressionists adopt some of the unusual viewpoints and compositional devices in their paintings.)

Cheers
Jeni