Showing posts with label opera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opera. Show all posts

Friday, November 27, 2015

Peking Opera Figures, 19th C

Peking Opera Figures

"Album of 100 Portraits of Personages from Chinese Opera"

Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date: late 19th–early 20th century
Culture: China
Medium: Album of fifty leaves; ink, color, and gold on silk
Artist: Unidentified



Chinese Opera figure b
Chinese Opera figure i
Chinese Opera figure h
late 19th century watercolour sketch of member of Peking Opera company
Chinese Opera figure k
Chinese Opera figure j
"In the opera boom of the late nineteenth century, albums were turned to a new purpose: documenting the variety and vibrancy of stage culture in all its multicolored splendor. This album records in detail the makeup and costume of one hundred characters drawn from nine plays. Each character is identified with an accompanying inscription, and the plays are named at the top right of nine of the leaves in slightly larger script."