Art on the clothing:
The art on the clothing is ‘Mandarin Ducks under Lotus’ by Ren Bonian, one of the most successful & influential painters of the ‘Shanghai School’. Arriving in Shanghai in 1857, Ren took the artistic name “bonian” (one-hundred years), claiming that it would take him a century to achieve success. However, by 1875 Ren Yi was the best-known painter in Shanghai. His highly sought-after bird-and-flower paintings initially followed the Song dynasty (960–1279) convention of applying rich color fields within outlines, producing decorative patterning with lifelike representation. The painting on your clothing represents Ren’s mature, more spontaneous style that is characterized by loose brushwork, more ink washes, and greater tonal variation. Large lotus leaves, brushed with wet-ink was