Magnolia in Vase and Cormorant Fisherman, Gao Qipei

Archive Label 2003 (version 1):
Gao Qipei was a Manchu who served as a high official in the Qing dynasty. In his best known paintings he used his finger tips and nails as painting instruments in order to interact more directly with ink and paper. This unorthodox technique has a recorded history that stretches back to the Tang dynasty (618-907), but Gao Qipei is probably its most famous practitioner.

The two works are quite different in style. In the Cormorant Fisherman, Gao first used a brush to lay down areas of light ink washes. Over these, in varying ink tonalities, he defined the forms in sharp, scratchy lines with a fingernail that he fashioned to act as a quill pen. In contrast, he probably relied primarily on his finger tips to create the soft, fluid description of a magnolia in an antique vase.

Archive Label 2003 (version 2):
These two paintings, mounted as a single hanging scroll, were initially pages of an album. As indicated by a seal that appears on both leaves, Zhitou shenghuo, or "brought to life by fingertips," the paintings were executed with Gao's fingers and fingernails. Gao Qipei was the best-known artist to use this unusual method which demands special skills including the use of fingernails as quill pens to draw sharp and scratchy outlines and the use of fingertips to create round and full strokes.