Awards

The current scholarship of Luo Pin (1733-1799), a professional painter from the mid-Qing dynasty, is dominated by discussions of his “Ghost Amusement” paintings. While the “Ghost Amusement” is well-known and influential, the canonical works do not represent a complete picture of Luo Pin’s artistic achievements. To fully capture Luo’s artistic style and the value of his paintings and to shift the uneven scholarly attention, this study aims to establish a foundation of Luo Pin’s surviving works through extensive and careful examination, including authentication, stylistic dating, the analysis of seals, and the study of recipients of Luo’s paintings.

By reassessing the dates of the letter in which Jin Nong (1687-1763) requested Luo Pin to ghostwrite his paintings, and sorting out the chronological sequence of painting of Jin’s painting subjects, this study conducts an in-depth analysis of Luo’s early painting style, arguing that the recognized “Strange Branches and Bizarre Leaves” style by Jin Nong in art history actually originates from Luo Pin's works created on his teacher’s behalf. Luo Pin’s early paintings in Yangzhou demonstrate his keen attention to detail and interest in creating visual illusions. He excelled at transforming poetic texts into captivating visual languages with the successful integration into his creations of techniques from copying ancient paintings and studying western perspectives.

Additionally, this dissertation explores Luo Pin's cultural interactions with scholars of the Qian-Jia period with particular attention to how he engaged in intellectual exchanges in the upper scholar circles through his “Portraiture-based Textual Research” approach. Finally, it compares and analyzes two versions of “Ghost Amusement” created by Luo Pin in his early and later years to investigate their differences and the reasons behind them.