Roberta Wue, assistant professor of art history, University of California-Irvine

Fan painting thrived in 19^th-century Shanghai, a prosperous commercial city in China.  Bird and flower subjects were particularly popular. Ren Bonian (1840-1896), one of the most prominent painters of the period, made his reputation with images of Shanghai flora and fauna on both folding and screen fans.  In his hands, bird-and-flower imagery took on urban overtones by representing the city via natural metaphors; his decorative works were coveted commodities for a bourgeois and merchant audience.

Courtesy of the Edwin L. Weisl Jr. Lectureship sponsored by the Robert Lehman Foundation and the John W. Nason Fund for East Asian Arts.