Page 34 - Fine Chiense Paintings Mar. 20, 2018

Executed by an anonymous painter employing ink and line drawing 《十六應真圖》無款識，畫者以白描手法展現十六羅漢傳法和
technique, Sixteen Arhats illustrates the lives and preaching scenes of 生活情景，構圖慎密，一氣呵成；筆墨細緻渾厚,一絲不苟，令
the sixteen lohans, the preservers of the teaching of Buddhism. In
每位羅漢、人物、鳥獸以至所有景物佳栩栩如生、活靈活現。前
a well-plotted composition, each lohan and every element on the
scroll was meticulously and vividly rendered in very fne and vigorous 人多認為此畫出自元代或以前名家之手筆，有傳是宋代李公麟
brushstrokes, which resulted in powerful and striking images. This （1049-1106）所作；其質量之高，無可置疑。
handscroll has been generally regarded as a rare and important work
by a great master of the Yuan dynasty or earlier. Some connoisseurs 此畫鈐有趙孟頫（1254-1322）藏印兩方。據清代王原祁等纂輯
have even attributed it to the Song painter, Li Gonglin (1049-1106).
之《佩文齋書畫譜》（卷九十八，十一頁），明王世貞爾雅樓所
藏名畫中有李龍眠畫《十六應真卷》。據云此卷其後藏於北京廣
Sixteen Arhats has two collector’s seals of the Yuan master Zhao
Mengfu (1254-1322). According to the Qing literature Pei Wen 濟寺，後歸段祺瑞（1865-1936）所得。段氏傳孫女段瑂（即曾
Zhai Shuhua Pu (Paintings and Calligraphy Register of Pei Wen Studio) 眧德博士[1900-1981]夫人）， 1940年代她携卷移居香港，其後
compiled by Wang Yuanqi et al., there was a handscroll of Sixteen 留交小叔曾眧森博士（1901-？）。此卷於香港大會堂首次公開
Arhats by Li Longmian (Li Gonglin) in the collection of Erya studio 展出， 1974年展於紐約Frank Caro畫廊，圖文並茂載於時年香港
of Wang Shizhen of the Ming period. As stated in the detached
colophons accompanying this painting, it was kept in Guangji 《明報月刊》5月號。1991年王季遷（1907-2003）為此卷題引
Temple in Beijing for centuries until the early 20th century, when 首，隨畫附上之一篇無款題跋有曰是王季遷之書。
it came into the possession of the warlord Duan Qirui (1865-1936).
Duan gifted this painting to his grand-daughter Duan Mei, wife of 現藏家自2005年購入《十六應真圖》後珍藏至今。2007年11月8
Dr. Tsang Chiu Tak (1900-1981), who migrated to Hong Kong in
the 1940s. She then passed it to her brother-in-law, Dr. Tsang Chiu 及9日中國中央電視台播出之《國寶檔案》，當中解說之《十六
Sam (1901-?), who organized an exhibition with this painting at the 應真圖》正是本拍品。
Hong Kong City Hall.

In 1974, Sixteen Arhats was exhibited at Frank Caro Gallery in New
York and was published in the May 1974 issue of Ming Pao Monthly
in Hong Kong. In 1991 Wang Jiqian (C. C. Wang, 1907-2003)
inscribed and signed the frontispiece of this handscroll. It was
speculated that the anonymous colophon accompanying this work
was also executed by Wang.
Sixteen Arhats has been a dear treasure of the current owner since
2005. It was featured in Guobao Dangan (File on National Treasures),
an annual television program broadcasted by CCTV of China, on 8
and 9 November 2007.

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