House & Garden 
THE 
BIRD-W-FLOWER 
PAINTINGS 
of 
CHINA 
GARDNER TEALL 
“The Blackbird”, by Wu Ping, an 
artist of the Sung Dynasty, 960 — 
1277 A. D. 
r I ' -HE great love of Nature inherent in 
A the Chinese soul made itself mani¬ 
fest in the painting and poetry of 
China. It lent to its art certain defined 
characteristics, which, in pictorial expres¬ 
sion were, at an early day, applied in the 
following groups into which painting and 
drawing were divided: Landscape; Man 
and Objects; Flowers and Birds; Plants 
and Insects. 
The third group is one with which we are 
all more or less familiar. The Chinese 
term for these Bird-and-Flower paintings 
is Hua niao or Hau hui, just as the Jap¬ 
anese for works of this genre is Kwa cho. 
-■1 bird-and-flower painting 
by an unknown member of 
the Imperial Academy, dating 
from 960—1368 'A. D. 
“Hibiscus and Egret”, 
Chao Meng Chao Tyze 
one of the bird-and-flc 
painters of the Sung pe 
\\ hile the \\ estern world has, for many 
years, utilized the Chinese Bird-and- 
Flower paintings in decoration and has 
adopted and adapted many of the Hua niao 
motifs in design, a fuller enjoyment of this 
Oriental art group is only possible through 
a more intimate knowledge of the subject 
than is conveyed to us by the mere external 
appeal of the aesthetic qualities in these 
Bird-and-Flower paintings of China. Birds 
and flowers evoke in the Chinese mind and 
heart a romantic sentiment with which, in 
European art, only feminine beauty is in 
any way to be put in comparison. 
Companion to the one opposite 
is this bird-and-flower painting 
of Wu Ping’s 
Of the Chinese Bird-and-Flower paint- 
iligs I etrucci has the following to sav: 
I he Chinese gave rein to their fancy for 
painting the bird in conjunction with the 
plant life associated with its home and 
habits. The bird is treated with a full 
understanding of its life, and flowers are 
studied with such a comprehension of their 
essential structure that a botanist can 
readily detect the characteristics typical of a 
species, despite the simplifications which 
an artist always imposes on the complexity 
of forms. This general class is subdivided. 
1 he epidendrum, the iris, the orchid and 
(Continued on page 130) 
A ' Chinese bird-and-flower 
painting by a member of the 
Imperial Academy of the 
Sung or Yuan Dynasty 
“Quails” by Ai Hsiian of the 
Sung Dynasty, painted about 
1070 A. D. Ai Hsiian special¬ 
ized in painting quails 
