The Inheritance and Development of Monthly Card

As for when the "Yue Pai" began, according to the earliest record found so far, on December 28th, 9th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1883 65438+125th of October), Shen Bao published it in the name of "The owner of Shen Baoge sincerely wishes to open it", and the article wrote: "Our library entrusted a stone cave to refine Huayang Yue Pai. This card is specially treated, and the characters are divided into two colors: green in China calendar, red in western calendar and green in western calendar. The 24 solar terms in the China calendar are listed below each month, and West Renye Fang is allowed to pay attention on Sundays, so you'd better check it. Printing with thick white foreign paper, and then printing clever lace around the card is very pleasing to the eye. The words "it is suitable for you to hang the painted wall or put it in the book felt". From then on,1885 65438+February 24th (11th year of Guangxu), two lottery companies in Shanghai published advertisements for issuing lottery tickets in Shenbao, and both indicated that the lottery tickets were accompanied by "monthly cards". This shows that the "moon card" painting popular in Shanghai during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty has become a common practice.

At that time, Chinese and foreign manufacturers invested heavily in promoting products with "Moon Brand", among which British American Tobacco Company, Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company and Huacheng Tobacco Company invested by China people occupied the first place. According to the Historical Records of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, in 1923, the company's advertising fee includes a "monthly card" with a budget of 40,000 yuan. British American Tobacco Company has an art room dedicated to painting advertisements, and hired artists such as Liang Dingming, Hu, Ni Gengye and Wu to paint "Yueka" at a high salary. At that time, there were 22 British businessmen, 4 American businessmen, 65,438+0 Japanese businessmen, 2 Dutch businessmen, 65,438+0 German businessmen, 2 Danish businessmen and 20 China businessmen in Shanghai insurance industry, and some foreign companies dealing in kerosene, medicine and chemical dyes all printed "monthly cards" as gifts for customers to expand brand promotion.

It is a great breakthrough to use brush watercolor painting in the creation of "Moon Card" painting. Zheng first explored and created this law. 19 14 years, he created the first monthly painting "Evening Makeup Picture" in this way, which became the origin of the brush watercolor painting method "Monthly Card". 19 15 years, at the request of Huang Chujiu, he painted "Yueka" and "Maid-in-waiting Showing" for Chinese and French pharmacies, which is the earliest nude painting in "Yueka" (it is said that he listened to people's advice and will not draw nude paintings in the future). Zheng's brush watercolor painting is exquisite, three-dimensional and bright, which is refreshing and widely welcomed by the society. Chinese and foreign manufacturers are scrambling to make an appointment for Zheng's paintings, and other painters in Shanghai who are engaged in the creation of "Moon Brand" have followed suit. The brush watercolor painting method was quickly mastered by everyone and became a special painting method for creating "moon cards".