Pen & ink painting/drawing
13 March 2026
Description

This is a framed piece in what appears to be very good condition. I have no information about who made it, but hope the writing in the upper left corner tells that. My grandfather died during WWII in 1944 when the U.S. Army plane he was on crashed while flying over "the hump" between India and China. He was stationed in China for some time and the family story is that he purchased this painting while there.

Dimensions

The painting is 22" high and 12" wide. Including the frame, the piece is 28½" high by 16½" wide.

Acquired from
Inherited
For sale
Yes
Answered within 2 days
By David U.
Mar 15, 14:57 UTC
Fair Market Value
$200 - $400 USD
Insurance Value $0 USD
What does this mean?

Hello, this item is a Chinese ink landscape painting executed in the traditional literati style using brush and black ink on paper. The composition depicts a mountainous landscape with cascading waterfalls, rocky outcrops, and stylized pine trees rendered with expressive brushwork and tonal ink washes. This type of imagery follows the long tradition of Chinese shanshui landscape painting, a genre that developed during the Tang and Song dynasties and remained a central theme in Chinese painting through the twentieth century. The inscription in the upper area includes a poetic dedication written in Chinese calligraphy and is accompanied by red seal stamps, which traditionally identify the artist and sometimes a studio or collector’s mark. Works of this type were commonly produced by trained artists and scholars in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and also widely continued in the twentieth century for both domestic collectors and export markets.

The brushwork, composition, and format suggest a twentieth century Chinese scholar style ink painting rather than an earlier imperial period work. The narrow vertical format, poetic inscription, and red seals follow conventions used by many painters working in the literati tradition, but without a confirmed attribution to a known listed artist the work is valued primarily as a decorative example of traditional Chinese ink landscape painting. Comparable framed Chinese ink landscapes of similar size and quality typically sell in the secondary market between $150 and $500 USD depending on the identified artist, age, and condition. Based on the visible characteristics and the dimensions of approximately 22 by 12 inches for the image, a reasonable current fair market value would likely fall in the range of $200 to $400 USD.

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