Page 61 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

SIX CLASSICAL PAINTINGS
CATALOGUED IN THE
IMPERIAL SHIQU BAOJI

FROM THE FUJITA MUSEUM

China boasts a long-standing tradition of imperial connoisseurship and collecting of
calligraphy and painting, which dates back at latest to the 4th century palace collection of
the Eastern Jin dynasty. While the assembly and dispersal of calligraphy and painting attendant on
dynastic successions often wrought lamentable ruin and destruction, periods of peace and prosperity,
on the other hand, guaranteed connoisseurs’ success in amassing a cornucopia of treasures. This
inexorable cycle went on for over a millennium and fnally saw the publication of Shiqu Baoji (The
Treasured Scrolls of the Stone Canal) during the Qianlong reign (1736-95) of the Qing dynasty,
which has come to be seen as the highest point in the history of imperial collecting of painting and
calligraphy. More than a hundred years later came the Xinhai Revolution (1911), which led to Prince-
Regent Zaifeng’s resignation and relocation to Tianjin by the end of the year. At the time, China’s last
emperor Puyi, who was born in Prince Chun Mansion, was only fve years old. The Republic of China
was founded on New Year’s Day the following year, prompting Puwei, also known as the second
Prince Gong, to sell most of his art collection other than painting and calligraphy to a Japanese art
dealer named Yamanaka Sadajirō in March, in a bid to raise funds for a military reinstatement of Puyi.
Mr Yamanaka, founder of Yamanaka & Company, staged an auction of Prince Gong’s collection in 1913
in New York, featuring 536 lots in the catalogue. On 5-6 March of the same year, a selection of 211
lots, again from Prince Gong’s collection, were ofered in a London sale, and its catalogue included
a note below the table of contents, indicating that the artworks were from the collection of Puwei,
Imperial Prince Gong and a descendant of Emperor Daoguang of Beijing.

On 22 February 1915, Zhang Binfang, the steward of Prince Chun’s Mansion (also known as the
Head Steward Zhang Wenzhi), sold six handscrolls attributed to Tang, Song and Yuan artists and
catalogued in Shiqu Baoji Chubian and Xubian (frst edition and sequel to the Catalogues of Painting
and Calligraphy in the Qianlong Imperial Collection) to Yamanaka & Company, for which a formal
receipt was prepared. (Fig. 1) Headquartered in Osaka, Yamanaka & Company later resold the six
paintings to the Fujita family in Osaka. The Fujita collection was begun by Fujita Denzaburō (1841-
1912), and was inherited by his two sons upon his death. The Fujita Museum of Art was established
in 1951 as a foundation, and opened to the public in 1954. The Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue
of Chinese Paintings: Vol. 3 Japanese Museum Collections compiled by Suzuki Kei and published
in 1983 features 36 paintings in the Fujita collection from the Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan,
Ming and Qing dynasties (JM 14), including the three works by Han Gan, Zhao Lingrang and Chen
Rong in the current group of six. Published in 1998, Sequel to the Catalogue of Chinese paintings in
Japanese Collections includes a scroll from Nine Songs of Qu Yuan attributed to Li Gonglin (lot 513).

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