Kao Ch'i-p'ei

1660-1734
CHINA

Shitoga is a technique of using fingers instead of brushes to paint and draw. The initiator of this peculiar technique is said to be Chang Tsao or Wei-yen in T'ang, and since then not a few painters have tried though there is no special document to record their names. However, it was since Kao Ch,i-p'ei in Ch'ing Dynasty that the technique of shitoga has been recognized at its artistic value.

Kao Ch'i-p'ei was born in a good family in Liaoyang and became later a police inspector. His tzu was Wei-chih and he used "Ch'ieh-yuan" or "Nan-ts'un" as his hao or brush names. At eight years of age he began his study of painting, and ever after earnestly copied many fanmous paintings whenever he got the chance to do so. Meanwhile he mastered the technique of shitoga and became famous. In his later years he was called to the palace and served at court for a while as a court-painter. He died in 1734 at something over seventy years of age. Kao-ping, his relative, wrote a book entitled "Study on Shitoga" and tells what he saw and studied about the technique of shitoga, inserting here and there some interesting episodes concerning this famous painter, his greatuncle. With his own interpretation the author wishes to introduce the subject of this technique

By this technique of shitoga Kao Ch'i-p'ei painted landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, and many other things: especially he devised a new style in drawing a plum in black ink. Most of his paintings are on silk but there are a few on paper, which is not alumed but ordinary paper, using specially thick (not watery) ink and colours.