Page 90 - Bonhams Sept 2016 CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS
P. 90
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COLLECTION OF MARK S. PRATT, WASHINGTON D.C.
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ANONYMOUS (15TH-16TH CENTURY) ATTRIBUTED TO CHEN HONGSHOU (1598-1652)
Female Figure with Basket Figures
Mounted, framed and glazed, ink and color on silk. Hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, with an inscription and two
49 x 19in (124.4 x 48.2cm) artist’s seals, and a collector’s seal reading Leigong, with a title slip
reading Chen Laolian Ju’an qimei tu.
US$2,500 - 4,000 35 3/4 x 17in (90.8 x 43.2cm)
佚名 十五至十六世紀 魚籃觀音像 設色絹本 鏡框 US$7,000 - 10,000
With the simple, secular robes and telltale basket the figure carries, it 傳陳洪綬 舉案齊眉圖 設色絹本 立軸
is tempting to interpret this painting as a depiction of the bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara as ‘Fish Basket Guanyin’ (Yulan Guanyin 魚籃觀音, Provenance
or Ma Langfu Guanyin 馬郎婦觀音), one of 33 manifestations of the Purchased in Taipei 1959 from Ma Jizuo (Ma Chi-tso, 1915-2009)
compassionate savior. Several Song and Yuan depictions of this deity
have survived. The present painting appears to be based on earlier The figures depicted in this scroll are the husband and wife Liang Hong
prototypes such as the late 13th-early 14th century example in the and Meng Guang of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-221). The artist has
collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. illustrated an important episode in the couple’s story, where the wife
presents a tray of food raising it the level of her eyebrows, an act of
respect and admiration.
For an exploration of the story of Liang Hong and Meng Guang and
interpretations of their story in Ming dynasty painting, see Lin Xiaoping,
“Wu Shi’en’s Liang Hong and Meng Guang: A Misreading,” Myriad
points of view : new research on Ming and Qing paintings in the Roy
and Marilyn Papp collection, Phoebus, p. 79-99.
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