The Demon Queller Zhong Kui

Exorcist Zhong Kui was often depicted in formidable postures with a sword while terrifying and fighting spirits and demons. His portrait was displayed in households at the summer Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It seems that this picture was painted for this particular occasion as it bears the date “on Duanyang of the year yisi”, i.e. 1905. The painting was executed in considerably mature brushwork against an empty background, both typical features of later literati figure painting. The author was a less-known artist active in the Guangdong Province at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.