On The Causes Of The Late Qing Dynasty In Guangdong Painting Secular Style

In late Qing Dynasty, the economic modality, social structure and people's life style in Guangzhou had changed much, which impacted greatly the value and representation of Chinese fine arts. On one hand, writers or poets integrated with professional artists, which made painting or drawing commercialized. On the other hand, though still on the base of Chinese traditional drawing, the artists in Guangdong used the western style and techniques of painting for reference to gradually shake off the fetters fastened by traditional bookman's set patterns, therefore created many civil paintings popular with townsfolk with the characteristics of popularized themes, true-life presentation and bright colors. The Sino-western style of painting cast great influence on the genre of painting in Guangdong and became the main stream in late Qing Dynasty in Guangdong, forming gradually the so called "Lingnan School" of painting. This paper re-evaluates the historical status of the artists and their products from Guangdong through probing into the background and reason of the formation of Lingnan style of painting with the hope that more fellow workers in the world of fine arts would pay more attention to and research them.