Page 59 - Sotheby's Part II Collection of Sir Joeseph Hotung Collection CHINESE ART , Oct. 9, 2022

The fish pond motif in the centre of this dish has also been painted Fish among water plants was a recognized genre of ink painting and With their clear Daoist association in China that is based on a the Jingguantang collection, a major collection of Chinese works of
with particular care, the carp-like fish being surrounded by a splendid was in the Yuan dynasty also used on jars, such as lot 6, also from passage in the book Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou (c. 369-286 BC), art, which in the 1990s was exhibited in his own museum, The Tsui
array of no less than six different water plants swerving in line with the Mingzhitang collection of Sir Joseph Hotung. While the jar, Daoism’s leading proponent, fish are considered the manifestation Museum of Art, in the old Bank of China building in Hong Kong. He
the fish’s movements, two different plants floating on the water however, shows us something like a cross-section through the water of freedom from restraints, and thus exemplify an ideal always close also made substantial donations to museums around the world, in
surface: the round leaves joined by stems probably represent frogbit, and the air above it, with weeds growing under water seen next to to the heart of China’s intellectuals. particular The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Art Institute
the ones that are divided into four, clover fern; and four submerged: lotus blossoms that are emerging from it, the present scene looks of Chicago, the Royal Ontario Museum, the National Gallery of
the long swerving leaves, eelgrass; the ‘hairy’ fronds probably soft down into the water from above. T.T. Tsui (Tsui Tsin-Tong, Xu Zhantang 1941-2010), the previous Australia, the Shanghai Museum and the University Museum and
hornwort; the fronds with ‘hairy’ clusters perhaps chara, and those owner of this dish, was a Hong Kong businessman, who assembled Art Gallery of the University of Hong Kong.
with leafy clusters, cleavers.