For the fiftieth anniversary of the relations China-France

France celebrates this year, January 27th, fiftieth anniversary (1964) of the diplomatic relations of contemporary China.

China is this immense set parts of the country which I shall have liked visiting (maybe in another life !), which the art always attracted me.

To celebrate it and illustrate it, here is some reproductions.

In the first one two paintings), among which the sellers, kind one French-Chinese couple, indicated me that it was about silk paintings, recent, executed according to a traditional mode. These paintings remind me, by certain sides in Matisse...
I shall not know how to give, regrettably, by misunderstanding of the writing, the name of the painter, the signature of which we see on the right-hand side.

Photos, which follow below, in a bad printing on mail card, correspond to last empress Cixi (Tseu-Hi or Tzu-hsi). We are at the end the Chinese empire there, shaken in particular by the western influences.
The style of overloaded clothes and the attitude congealed by the characters, is completely paradoxical previous paintings.

And also, at the same time overloaded and purified, the decorations of the doors of the Chinese temple Thian Hock Keng of Singapore.
( See other photos of this temple, such as it was in 1989 on one of my other sites, being a part of a series on Singapore, in French).

Then, another postcard, of the same period as the previous ones, the hieratic attitude of the soldiers of the 1880s of which joins partially that of the contemporary paintings shown here.

And finally, to finish this evocation of China, an engraving published in 1812 which would come from the Parisian collection of Pierre-Vincent Bertin ( 1653-1711 ), a big part of which was published on other one of my sites under the title :
80 Engravings on the jobs and the costumes of China by 1800 (in french).

and also :
Chinese penal code (in french)
Chinese boats (in french)
A Han Chinese meal (in french)
Daily life in China in the 18th and 19th century (in french)
Costumes from China around 1830 (in french)
Map of Asia circa 1750 (in french)