Featured Help Identifying Chinese Scroll Artist

Good morning antique cohorts . Just won 3 scrolls and a painting on silk or paper(mounted on material ?) and hope one or two of them are at best known artist. Not expecting any real age. I purchased to sell but mostly I liked and appreciated them, and would be happy if they didn’t sell. So here is one that google translate says “Welcoming the winter and spring with vegetarian tea”, don’t know how accurate that is but hoping to get it right and the artist signature and stamps are important to me. *crossing fingers*

(These are the auction photos, will be picking them up today)

thanks for looking.

 

Cherry blossoms and apple blossoms happen before the trees leaf out, if that's any help.

 

Just add a few more photo’s(above) now that I have in hand. This scroll measures top to bottom 61.5”inches H by 21.75”inches W. Larger than I expected but the smallest of the three. Actual painting 37”H By 18.75”W. The artist might be “Ma Desheng” but doesn’t look like his other works. If it is him…lucky me

 

The inscription says "Sending back the winter, spring is full of fragrance." I'm sorry that I cannot make out the last character of the artist's signature. His name appears to be Ma De____ (馬德__) , so it is close to Ma Desheng 馬德升 but not that. As you noted, Ma Desheng's paintings are of a different style, very modern, while this painting looks very traditional. This painting is also dated. The Chinese calendar uses a cycle of 60 years, with each year in the cycle having a particular designation. The year 己卯 here could be 1999, 1939, or 1879. Since the painting looks rather new to me, my guess would be that it dates from 1999.

 

Your information is very much appreciated, thank you very much sir. If you could indulge me, was the information all in the script logographics and or also in the red stamps. Trying to learn as I go. I am posting a sharp photo of the last unreadable character in a hellmary attempt the artist sloppy signature can be interpreted. Are there possibilities it was never intended to be readable(just curious). As for the year I again appreciate the info and agree 1999 appears true. The material and paper under a hand held microscope easily confirms but I am glad to know the exact year.

As noted in my post I have two other scrolls much larger and will try to post them today. If you have the time please take a look and give me your thoughts. *thumbs-up*

 

Thank you for the close-up. Now I see more clearly that the second character is 華, which would make the name of the artist Ma Dehua. The name also appears in the upper seal. There is a famous Chinese artist (a woman) by the name of Ma Dehua; however, as you can see on this Chinese webpage about the artist, https://www.sohu.com/a/209462190_99937377, her style of painting is also more modern than the scroll that you have, plus her calligraphy style and signature are different. It may just be a coincidence that the two artists have the same name; "Dehua" is probably a name shared by many people.

The lower seal is not the artist's name but the artist referring to himself in a poetic way, comparing himself to an artist of the Qing dynasty who called himself "Master of the Shizhu Library."

 

You are an amazing asset to this group. Thank you 10 folds.
Hope you get a chance to look at my other Chinese scroll posted. It has more age.

 

Potential dumb question: are more women making these paintings now? I thought in the old days, it was mostly a male occupation. Was that true, and if so has it changed?