Have Your Mind Blown by the Beauty of Cut-Paper Paintings

“Cut-paper Paintings” by Bao Jun (now housed in Zhenjiang Museum)

The “cut-paper painting” by Bao Jun, as a distinctive category that marked an important stage in the development of the Yangzhou paper-cut art of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912 AD), count as the masterpiece of the literati paper-cuts for that it has not only inherited the literati characters of the preceding paper cut-outs by Bao Zhuangxing, but also integrated multiple art forms including poetry, calligraphy, painting, printing, cutting and pasting.

There are altogether 12 pieces of “cut-paper painting” in Bao Jun’s Album of Plants and Insects in Color now housed in Zhenjiang Museum, namely, Crabapples, Butterflies, Okra Flowers and Chrysanthemums, Hydrangea Flowers and Kingfisher, Returned Swallow in Spring, Daylilies, Black Butterflies, Daylilies and Orchids, Peach Blossoms, Swallows and Willows, Hydrangea Flowers, Bean Pods. In similar styles, these pieces feature ingenious compositions, rich layers and life-like illustration thanks to Bao Jun’s experienced skills of cutting and collaging.

While unable to tell at first glance whether these are paintings, calligraphies or paper-cuts as the artist had integrated paper-cutting, painting, calligraphy and seals.

The viewers would find out after careful observation that these pieces must have been done by the creator first cutting shapes of flowers, birds, plants, insects, characters and seals from sheets of paper, then pasting them onto rice paper and finally rendering and adding supplemental brushwork similar to the texture strokes in Chinese painting.

With a solid foundation in the fields of painting and calligraphy as well as adept skills of paper-cutting, Bao Jun was able to combine painting and paper-cuts innovatively, creating a series of fascinating “cut-paper paintings” of landscapes, birds and flowers, plants and insects, figures, among which those with the theme of birds and flowers as well as plants and insects are the most brilliant.

The “cut-paper painting” demands experienced skills of collaging and pasting. These skills of Bao Jun were so ingenious that some staff of the museum who didn’t believe that the pieces in the Album of Plants and Insects were made of cut-paper even broke the museum rules to touch these cultural relics and were fully convinced and amazed when they saw the slightly curled corners of the cut-paper.

With scissors as the main tool and brush as the supplemental, Bao Jun created artworks that are still fascinating one century later to the viewers in the present day based on his incomparable cutting skills and ingenious brushwork.

His artworks, conveying both characters and interests of the literati, allow the viewers not only to study his ingenious artistic skills, but also to get a look at the inner world of the artist.

With pieces bearing his unique cultural connotations, Bao Jun established a direct link between objective sceneries and their artistic images...

.. the latter of which became the carrier for his inner emotions.

On his artworks Bao Jun usually left the signature of “Bao Jun from Baisha (White Sand)” or the seal of “Baisha Ren (person from White Sand)”. According to Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Chinese Geographical Names, Baisha was a prefecture known for white sand located in Yizheng county of China’s eastern Jiangsu province. And since Baisha prefecture was under jurisdiction of Yangzhou during the Qing dynasty, Bao Jun was referred to as a native of Yangzhou by Chen Wenshu in his New Recordings of the Painters Circle, actually a native of Yizheng county of Yangzhou to be specific.

“Cut-paper Paintings” by Bao Jun (now housed in Tianjin Museum)

There are two pieces (series) of artworks by Bao Jun now housed in Tianjin Museum, one of which was created in 1834, the 14th year during Emperor Daoguang’s reign while the other in 1837, namely, the 17th year.

Irises and Dragonfly, Chrysanthemums and Cricket, by Bao Jun.

Daylilies and Locust, Okra Flowers and Cicadas, by Bao Jun.

Corn Poppies, Chrysanthemums and Katydids, by Bao Jun.

Plantain Lilies, Wisterias, by Bao Jun.