About
A maker's eye, applied to buying.
Artifex is the Latin word for a craftsman: someone who makes things by hand and judges them by how they are made. That is the standard we buy to, and the standard we describe to.
We chose the word because it describes what we look for. Before a work goes on this site we ask one question of it: can we see the hand? A brush loaded and dragged until it skips, ink that pooled where the stroke paused, color that bled at the edge of a petal because the paper was still wet. Those are the marks of a person at work, and they are the reason to own a painting rather than a print of one.
We do not ask who the person was. That is a different trade, with different evidence, and we do not practice it. What we sell is the object and the skill visible in it.
- Screens1 work
- Landscapes5 works
- Birds, Flowers & Animals4 works
- Figures2 works
The present group is paintings on paper, mounted as hanging scrolls or framed panels, and one six-panel folding screen on gold ground. Landscapes in ink and in mineral color; birds, flowers and horses; two figure paintings; all in the Chinese tradition and all made by hand. The stock changes; the standard does not.
Every page on this site is written from the object in front of us. We record the support (paper or silk), the medium (ink, light color, mineral color), the form (scroll, panel, screen), the mounting (silk, frame, glazing, roller ends), and any inscriptions or seals, which we describe as they appear and do not translate or attribute.
We do not assign a date, a period or a dynasty. We do not name a painter, a school or a workshop. We do not offer a provenance. If a page says a work is "in the manner of" something, that describes the style and nothing else. The full statement is in How We Describe, and your invoice describes the work in the same terms.
Artifex Fine Art LLC is a dealer in works of art registered in the United States. We work online and by appointment, ship worldwide, and answer every inquiry ourselves, the same working day. We are a small company and we would rather sell you the right work than a second one.
Designers, decorators and hospitality buyers are welcome; see Services for how we work with the trade.
- We do not attribute. No names, no dates, no stories. If you need a work with a documented author or age, you need a different kind of dealer, and we will say so.
- We do not issue certificates. There is nothing to certify beyond what is written on the page, and the invoice repeats it.
- We do not push. No countdowns, no "one other buyer is interested," no follow-up calls. Ask a question, get an answer, decide in your own time.
- We do not hide the price. It is on the page, and it is the price.