Page 80 - Bonhams Los Angelis December 14, 2022

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CHEN BAOCHEN (1848-1935) The present album is a lei wen (誄文), or eulogy, written by Chen
Calligraphy Album Baochen in honor of his late teacher, He Yiqing. In it, Chen shows
Ink on paper, a 72-leaf album written in standard script, expressing his respect for He not only through his syntax and expressions of
condolences for the passing of Chen’s teacher, He Yiqing (d. 1898), reverence and grief, but also through the aesthetic qualities of the
in the second month of the twenty-fourth year of the Guangxu reign painting. These are particularly seen through Chen’s choice of standard
(1898), signed Chen Baochen, followed by a later inscription, dated script, often reserved for formal documents, and through his decision
guiyou year (1933) and signed Chen Baochen, with two artist’s seals. to write his own name in a smaller font and positioned along the right
margin of the text column, as if the characters of Chen’s name itself
17 3/8 x 9 1/2in (44 x 24cm) each leaf are moving aside and bowing before He, reiterating Chen’s humble
and respectful position in relation to his teacher. The text was originally
$15,000 - 25,000 written by Chen on a scroll in 1898, however several years later a
32-character section in the middle was lost, and Chen rewrote those
陳寳琛 楷書誄文 水墨紙本 冊頁七十二開 characters in 1933. The scroll was later cut character-by-character and
reformatted into the present album. The careful remounting evident on
款識：誥授朝議大夫運同銜前屬甘肅鎮番縣知縣何翊卿先生哀誄。父 each page of the album attests to the eulogy’s physical journey over
執何先生貞疾三年以光緒二十四年二月庚午卒於里第，寳琛既走哭於 time, and the family’s dedication to preserving the text for generations.
寢退。（文不全錄）
註：何履亨， 字翊卿，咸丰六年（1856年）丙辰科进 士，授甘 镇番 知
為陳寳琛老師。陳寶琛七女陳南貞適何履亨之孫何心儒。
補文：文中脫落兩葉共三十二字，癸酉(1933)九月南女携來沽上寓
樓，為補書之俯仰三十五年世變至此，衰耄無成，九原可作，曷勝悽
感。寳琛坿誌時年八十又六。
鈐印：陳寳琛印、 庵八十後印
題簽：清太傅陳弢庵誄何翊卿文墨寶，魏景蒙謹識
鈐印：魏仁和、景蒙
註：魏景蒙近代中國著名記者及新聞從業人員，曾任中華民國行政院
新聞局局長及總統府國策顧問。

Provenance:
He Yiwen Family Collection 何藝文女士家藏

78 | BONHAMS