Mignonette Yin Cheng, Chinese-American, 1933-2009. A 1990s watercolor on paper Settignano landscape diptych, titled “Sweet Scents of Spring” and “Cypress Hill Rises”. Signed “M. Y. Cheng” and “Mignonette Y. Cheng”, both dated “1994” lower right, titled lower left. To image 11 x 5” high, bottom image 5 ½ x 6 ½” high, matted 17 x 22 ½” high overall.
*Note: All works can be shipped, please contact us at 734-434-2660 or info@schmidtsantiques.com to request a shipping estimate.
Born in 1933 near Amoy, China, the artist Mignonette Yin Cheng received her first training at the Russian Academy of Arts in Shanghai learning traditional Chinese drawing and painting techniques. Arriving in the U.S. in 1955, her painting style evolved into a vibrant, gestural expression of her unique background and cultural influence. Cheng was a professor emerita of painting at the University of Michigan School of Art, having taught there for over 30 years. She has been recognized with extensive national and international awards and exhibitions and her work is represented in numerous public and private collections. This exhibition, entitled “Her Joyful Eye” chronicles Mignonette’s life and the evolution of her work, which integrated a range of media and techniques, including printmaking, watercolor, gouache, collage, and oil and wax emulsion. The work includes a diverse oeuvre of landscapes and still lifes, executed plein-air and instudio, inspired by her extensive travels to England, Scotland, Italy, and throughout Asia. Mignonette’s technical mastery of her tools and media allowed her to show the essential elements of the object or place she was depicting, whether it be in China, Italy, or Scotland. The great unifying and vivifying component of Mignonette’s art is light and its effects on our perception of the world. Sometimes subtle, sometimes sharp, light defines the tiniest detail of a still life or the limitless space of a landscape.