Itinerant vendor of artificial flowers
1885
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1885
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
Itinerant vendor of artificial flowers is a 1885 paint by Peichun Zhou, a Chinese Orthodox School work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting depicts a vendor selling artificial flowers, with a man and a woman standing beside a table. The man, dressed in a blue robe, is holding a flower, while the woman, wearing a pink robe, is holding a child. The table is adorned with various flowers and objects. The painting features a mix of Impressionism and Realism, with soft brushstrokes and vivid colors. The scene is set against a plain background, drawing attention to the subjects. To learn more about the artist's use of Impressionism and Realism, explore the works of Zhou, Peichun.
The painting depicts an itinerant vendor of artificial flowers, made from tongcao, standing on a plain ground with two young customers examining a selection of flowers from a stack of boxes. The vendor is dressed in blue, and the scene includes a description in Chinese on the right, accompanied by an English translation in pencil. The work is part of an album containing over 200 paintings of various figures in different occupations, numbered D.1480 to D.1714, created between 1885 and 1886. The album covers subjects such as head-dresses, processions, customs, punishments, and tortures, and was…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Peichun Zhou's tiny paintings feel like overheard gossip. Every inch of the page teems with someone’s daily hustle—silver hairpins, paper flowers, or a jeweler gluing kingfisher feathers onto a trinket. You can almost…
See the richer artist page
