Painting of a woman, perhaps a Daoist deity, holding a peach and accompanied by two cranes. The peach and the two red-crowned cranes symbolise good fortune and longevity. An inscription reads, in left column 歲次己酉繪在蘭亭軒南牕(窗)之下 ‘sui ci ji you hui zai lan ting xuan nan zhi xia’, indicating the time and place when the painting was completed－ ‘painted under the southern window of Orchid Pavilion (蘭亭軒 Lan-Ting Xuan) in the year Ji-You(己酉)’. The year Ji-You could be 1669, 1729, 1789, 1849 or 1909. The signature reads 惲冰 ‘yun bing’, the name of a famous female painter in the Qing dynasty. However the painting may be a copy or replica of one of her works. Yun-Bing (1633-1690) was an outstanding female painter who won the respect and appreciation of the Emperor Qianlong, and several of her paintings are collected by the National Palace in Taiwan. If this is an authentic one, then the date is probably 1669. However, the writing style of the calligraphy and also the stamp below are quite different to those in her real paintings, so this is unlikely to be authentic. Silk mount; wood.
