Chinese ink on paper. Shih Te monk and is Broom

The artist has represented a standing character, leaning on a broom, with a blissful and amused expression on his face turned towards the sky. This is probably Shih Te, a mischievous young Chinese monk who, according to legend, lived in the Kwo-Ching-Su temple in China during the Tang period around the 9th century. He is always represented with a broom because he was employed in the maintenance of the temple. As a young teenager rejected by his village, he was discovered wandering in the mountains by Feng Kan, a senior priest who brought him back and housed him at the Kwo-Ching-Su temple. He is almost always accompanied by his friend Han Shan and sometimes the priest Feng Kan and a Tiger. The terrible and feared animal served as a docile mount for Feng Kan. In Chinese symbolism Shih Te takes care of the body in particular. With his friend Han Shan who takes care of the mind, they are very respectful of nature and live in harmony with it, very simply almost in harmony. rags content with little. The peaceful presence of the tiger confirms this universal harmony with nature. The work is unfortunately not signed and only a specialist could identify the author and the period. The artist went to the essential, vigorously and without hesitation, his brushstrokes are precise and energetic revealing confidence and artistic maturity. The painting is done with Indian ink, passed with a brush on centuries-old paper. The work was formerly reinforced by lateral strips of paper, it must have been kept rolled for a long time which explains the multiple horizontal slits, today it is presented in an old European wooden frame, very simple but of beautiful construction that we can date from the end of the 19th century. We have kept this framework. The painting is probably from the Ming period or earlier.
Dimensions:
paint only 675x1410mm
with side margins 860x1410mm
with the old wooden frame: 1060x1600mm.