Page 324 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF
GUY AND MARIE-HÉLÈNE WEILL

(LOTS 1613-1614)

Across more than half a century, the collectors Guy and Marie-Hélène Weill
engaged in an inspired deeply shared journey in fne art. Early patrons of
Abstract Expressionism, the couple expanded their connoisseurship over
time to encompass a diversity of categories and media. From masterful
examples of Chinese painting to exquisite works of Southeast Asian
sculpture, their private collection stood as a tangible expression of the
curiosity and zeal with which they lived.

Guy and Marie-Hélène Weill on Lake Geneva, 1950. In the late 1960s, Guy and Marie-Hélène Weill discovered the rich history and
beauty of Asian art. While visiting one of their daughters in California, they
happened upon the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Having so fervently
embraced Abstract Expressionism’s sense of boldness and spontaneity, the
Weills were overwhelmed by the simple forms and graceful lines of Chinese
painting, porcelain, and bronzes. When they returned to Manhattan, the
collectors began what they later described as a “lifelong process of self-
education,” honing their united connoisseurial eye through involvement with
the Asia Society, the China Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
where Marie-Hélène Weill served as a lecturer while they both worked closely
with members of the Department of Asian Art. Together they studied, traveled
extensively and learned everything they could about their new passion, and
from the 1970s onward, Guy and Marie-Hélène Weill carefully built what would
become one of New York’s premier assemblages of Asian art.

1613

AN UNDERGLAZE-BLUE, COPPER-RED
AND CELADON-GLAZED CARVED JAR
KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN
UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE
CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

The sides taper from the rounded shoulder
to the splayed foot, and are carved in shallow
relief with a river landscape detailed with a
lone fsherman in a boat beside rocky cliffs,
and on the reverse with a farm compound
nestled amidst trees, all highlighted
with celadon glaze contrasting with the
underglaze cobalt-blue and copper-red.

8¿ in. (20.6 cm.) high

$7,000-9,000

清康熙 釉裏三色漁隱圖罐 雙圈六字楷書款

(mark)

322