[Shunga] Chungong (palais du printemps)

Album of five Chinese erotic prints, mounted on cardboard, anonymous.
Accordion binding, which can be completely unfolded to display all five prints. Very thick cardboard imitating the rigidity of wood, the paper prints have been pasted onto the cardboard. Covered on the upper and lower boards with silk fabric with brown motifs. Old ochre label with manuscript title in India ink. Upper board darkened at top over 1cm. Red ink offsetting over a few millimeters at the top of the prints. Rubbing on some prints with color loss.
The five paintings depict five couples, four of which are coupling, in richly furnished decorative settings. The palette uses numerous colors. Chinese erotic art and its conventions are very different from Japanese Shunga and remain poorly understood. There is more naivety and less lubricity. The staging is more frontal, the viewpoint distant, the sexuality often more extensive, and the action takes place outdoors in nature or in furnished interiors. The colors are more vivid and diverse.
The date of 1920 is only a suggestion that seems coherent to us. This type of collection usually remained anonymous due to censorship; it was often given as a wedding gift or intended for foreign visitors at that time.