Page 16 - Sothebys Fine Chinese paintings Hong Kong

Because of innate frailty and frequent dislocation together with his younger Works by Qian that came up in auctions in
owing to postings, Qian suffered from diabetes brother Weiqiao as the the past two decades or so had actually been
in his middle age, rendering him skinny and Two Qians of Changzhou, smuggled out of the Qing court by the last
haggard. In the spring of the 37 year of the Weicheng was masterly emperor Puyi and his brother.
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Qianlong reign (1772), after traversing great in composing in various
distances to return home to mourn his father, styles that befit the
he succumbed to grief and a bad cold and occasion whether they were travel poems, social both adept at landscapes and flowers. Their
died towards the end of the year. Immensely responses, responses to imperial orders or mother Wu Gen was also a painter and was
sorrowful, Emperor Qianlong posthumously inscriptional verses. bestowed with a ruyi-sceptre and a mink for an
bestowed on him the title of minister and ink painting of Guanyin that she presented to
canonized him as Wenmin. 1 Despite his accomplishment in calligraphy, the empress dowager on her 70 birthday. It
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which he modelled on Zhong You, Wang Xizhi was she rather than Chen Shu, who was Qian
Unfairly overshadowed by his fame in painting, and Ouyang Xun for his elegant regular script Chenqun’s mother possibly mistaken to be Qian
lamented his contemporaries, the prose and and on Su Shi for his liberal running script, Qian Weicheng’s in some art history texts, who taught
poetry collected in his personal anthology has left behind relatively few works. Out of the the brothers expressive fruits and flowers since
Collected Works of Qian Weicheng (Chashan 160 pieces or sets of paintings and calligraphies childhood. As for his landscapes, Weicheng built
Shiwen Ji) are found to be highly readable and attributed to him and exclusive of a handful of on his early familiarity with ancient masters
original. A follower of Li Bai, Du Fu and Su Shi, he collaborations entered into the various series through copying with advice and instructions
wrote with a freshness that was unlike any other. of Collected Treasures of the Stone Moat (Shiqu given by Dong Bangda, a fellow Academician
As aptly observed by Qian Chenqun, the chief Baoji), calligraphic works account for as few as of the Grand Secretariat, and Zhang Zongcang,
examiner to whom Weicheng owed his honours, six. These are either copies of ancient masters or an elderly court painter, after he had joined the
of the emperor’s literary civil service. Being followers of the Loudong
compositions by imperial School of landscape painting, Dong and Zhang
Except for those of River Qingxi and Mount order, such as a copy of modelled on the early Qing master Wang Yuanqi
Chicheng, all the sectional paintings have Su Shi’s Diamond Sutra and traced the painting tradition back to the
adopted the deep-distance composition that catalogued in Pearl Forest Song and Yuan periods with special reference to
allows the painting surface to be filled with peaks, in the Secret Hall: Series Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan among the Four
valleys, streams, waterfalls, woods and historic Two (Midian Zhulin: Masters of the Yuan. While revering the ancient
sites all at the same time in order to capture in Xubian) and a copy of the tradition, they emphasized proper composition
full the characteristic views of Mount Tiantai. emperor’s inscriptions and vigorous brush and ink. On top of this,
on his own painting the vast and rich imperial collection further
catalogued in Collected provided Qian with inspiring specimens for
his unique poetry benefited tremendously from Treasures of the Stone Moat: Series Three (Shiqu emulation. The importance of ancient masters,
his travels. Zhao Yi, a contemporary poet, Baoji Sanbian). great or otherwise, in the imperial collection is
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further compared his unrestrained poetry readily acknowledged by Qian in an inscription
with the Song poet Su Shi while his carefree Art was very much a way of life for the Qian in verse form, which also explicitly stresses
personality with the Eastern Jin people. Known family. Weicheng and his brother Weiqiao were the indispensability of calligraphic brushwork.
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14 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比