Friday, August 30, 2013

Chung Wun, Portrait Painter

The Sun
(New York)
July 29, 1881

A CHEERY CHINESE ARTIST.
The First of His School to Venture to New York.
A Visit to His Studio—Portraits and Sketches
that Adorn the Walls—Not Appreciated,
He Fled to Gotham, and Going to Leave Us.

Fourth avenue, near, thirty-fourth street, has the distinction of harboring the first Chinese artist who ever plied palette and brush in this city. The representative of Chinese art is quartered upon the second floor of a newly-painted and neatly kept flat. Stained glass panes in the lower sashes of the front windows serve as a pleasing contrast to the plain glass in the windows of the other tenants, and temper the light to the shorn and queued artist within. Under the windows is a modest sign, “Chung Wun. Portrait Painter.” A smaller sign of the same purport is on the outer door of the artist’s rooms. In a little obelisk-like column, on either side of the Roman letters of the inscription are the Chinese equivalent.

(click image to enlarge)

(Next post September 6: Fred Eng in Classic Comics)

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