Page 17 - Sothebys Fine Chinese paintings Hong Kong

fig. 1
Qian Weicheng, Overview
of Qixia, ink and colour
on paper, hanging scroll,
National Palace Museum,
no: 故-畫-003712-00000
圖一
錢維城，《棲霞全圖》，設色紙
本，立軸，國立故宮博物院藏，作
品號：故-畫-003712-00000

Considering that Qian was often present at the collection. This contrasts with only 43 pieces Park. Formally joining the Palace Museum in
emperor’s frequent painting and calligraphic or sets in the collection of various institutions 1953, Xu helped authenticate 3,217 pieces or
viewings, there is no doubt that he benefited elsewhere in Mainland China, according to sets of paintings and calligraphies from various
immensely from such access and established for Illustrated Catalogue of Selected Works of Ancient sources for subsequent acquisition. The most
himself a distinctive personality marked by the Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (Zhongguo famous of them all are Wang Ximeng’s One
elegance and crispness of his flowers and the Gudai Shuhua Tumu). Works by Qian that came Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, Huang
serenity and profundity of his landscapes. up in auctions in the past two decades or so had Gongwang’s Peaks in Clearing Snow and Wang
actually been smuggled out of the Qing court Hui’s Emperor Kangxi’s Inspection Tour to the
In terms of purpose, Qian’s paintings and by the last emperor Puyi and his brother. These South (No. 12). Masterpieces by Qian Weicheng
calligraphies can be broadly divided into two include Yizhou Pavilion in Memory of Su Shi, also came up such as Fruits from the Hui Tribe
categories. The first is intended as gifts for Flowers of the Four Seasons and Mount Yandang, and A Special Rock, both of which are catalogued
presentation to friends and relatives, such as a all of which are included in Collected Treasures of in Collected Treasures of the Stone Moat. The
handscroll of a study and another painted for the Stone Moat: Series Two (Shiqu Baoji Xubian), paintings Ten Auspicious Landscapes of Taishan
presentation to Shushen. The other category as is the painting under discussion here. and Flowers of the Four Seasons, the latter of
comprises responses to imperial orders and which was auctioned a few years ago, were once
presentations to the emperor. Qian was a in the inventory of the predecessor of the State
favourite painter of Emperor Qianlong and Administration of Cultural Heritage and should
many of his paintings were made in response It can therefore be assumed that have been viewed and documented by Yang
to imperial orders whether as wallpaper for the painting was made during Renkai and others pending authentication by
palaces such as A Stream within Earshot or as or shortly after Qian’s tenure the Round City experts. It is possible that the
visual records like The Mountain Resort in Snow, as Education Commissioner of paintings were neither donations nor confiscated
Overview of Qixia (fig. 1) and Quelling of the Zhejiang between 1763 and 1765. properties but rather items for sale from art
Dzungars. According to the author’s incomplete dealers. Since joint state-private ownership was
count, there are more than 200 poems inscribed not in force then, the art dealers were free to
by Emperor Qianlong on Qian’s paintings, the According to documentation by the experts back off if they found the offer unattractive. For
earliest dated the 15 year of his reign (1750) and Chen Rentao and Yang Renkai, the painting Ten reasons unknown, the paintings failed to enter
th
the latest 10 years after the painter’s death. The Auspicious Landscapes of Taishan was placed the museum collection and were subsequently
last of these inscriptions is imbued with sadness in the safekeeping of the predecessor of the sold and resold.
and fully demonstrates how much the talented State Administration of Cultural Heritage in
artist who died in his prime was missed. 5 1949. The head at the time was Zheng Zhenduo, Ten Auspicious Landscapes of Taishan is a
who enlisted the assistance of the renowned handscroll in colour on paper, measuring 33.7
Owing to Qian’s early departure, the great connoisseurs Zhang Heng and Xu Bangda to cm long and 458 cm wide. Each portraying one
majority of his works has remained in the authenticate paintings, calligraphies and other of the ten spectacular views of Mount Tiantai,
collection of the imperial court. A survey art objects to be acquired from art dealers as the sectional paintings are similar in dimensions,
conducted by the author has found that there are well as donations and properties confiscated ranging from 44.5 cm to 46.5 cm wide and are
161 pieces or sets of paintings and calligraphies from Jin Bosheng, Yue Bin and others in an separated by a narrow colophon strip lightly
including 82 fans in the Palace Museum office specially set up in the Round City in Beihai washed in indigo or juice green to accommodate

A REDISCOVERED IMPERIAL HEIRLOOM – TEN AUSPICIOUS LANDSCAPES OF TAISHAN BY QIAN WEICHENG 15