Chinese Painting in Contrast with Western Painting

Chinese and Western painting represent two entirely different trends in the world history of fine arts. They differ from each other not only in art style but also in the artists’ painting skills. Chinese classic paintings focus on the vivification of a conception but not the true image of the scene or object in the picture. That is to say, the focus is not a physical resemblance but a more refined and spiritual resemblance of what has been painted. As a result, no matter whether they are painted in color or in black and white, the persons, objects or landscapes in the pictures are often unrealistic or even out of proportion and scale. On the other hand, the western classic paintings stress the creation of real and lively images of the objects or people in the picture. And they are often marked with the effect of light and shade and the contrast of color and size, whether in oil or in water color, resulting in a “true to life” style (Shen, 1996, p.277). But these two entirely different paintings have influenced each other in the history of their respective development. Chinese painting and western painting began to have close contact since the seventeenth century. They influenced each other to a certain extent. This essay discusses the difference between Chinese painting and western painting in respect of medium, painting techniques (line, color, shade, perspective, basic training), possibility of correction, subject-matter, philosophy, style and the relationship with the literati. Western influence on Chinese painting since the seventeenth century was limited whereas Chinese influence on western art since the seventeenth century was mainly embodied in the Rococo art.