Page 104 - March 17, 2020 Impotant Chinese Art, Sotheby's, New York

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PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK lot, gifted by Anthony J. Hardy to the Hong
PRIVATE COLLECTION Kong Maritime Museum (accession no.
A LARGE AND RARE PAINTING OF A HKMM2018.0001.0001), illustrated in Libby Lai-
MOTHER AND CHILD Pik Chan and Nina Lai-Na Wan ed., The Dragon
and The Eagle: American Traders in China, A
QING DYNASTY, CIRCA 1870 Century of Trade from 1784 to 1900, vol. I, Hong
oil on canvas, depicting an intimate and sensual Kong, 2018, no. 5.30. The authors suggest that
scene of a beautiful young mother lying on the visual language used within this painting
her side nursing her infant son, her elegant derived from both Chinese and European
facial features framed by her long black hair influences. The child in the foreground signals
swept back and secured by an embellished fertility in the Chinese tradition, and the
hair ornament, her head lightly resting on her authors likened the depiction of a young lady
bejeweled and manicured left hand supported lying in her inner chamber in an erotic position
by a brocade bolster inscribed on the side with to European paintings of an odalisque. The
the first two verses of the first Qing ping diao painting also has details drawn from Chinese
by Li Bai, adorned in a diaphanous apricot- iconography which allude to intimacy, including
yellow robe draped over blue floral-patterned the slippers of the lady and her attendant, and
trousers, the delicate feet bound within a pair of the lady’s thinly clad breast. Interestingly, the
red slippers, a young female attendant seated suggestive footwear and bosom are skillfully
behind, both figures resting atop a mother-of- obscured by a floral bouquet, a teapot, and a
pearl-inlaid bed with an aubergine-ground robe fan, respectively. It is unclear whether these
and chrysanthemum-decorated inscribed fan judiciously placed elements are original to the
hanging in the background, framed in a gilt- composition, but their mere presence suggests
wood frame that other examples of the same subject, such
Height 29½ in., 75 cm; Width 43⅞ in., 111.6 cm as the present lot, would have almost certainly
been understood as representations of
PROVENANCE intimacy, and erotic in nature in the eyes of the
contemporaneous viewer.
Charlotte Hortsmann and Gerald Godfrey, Ltd.,
Hong Kong. While Chinese oil paintings are closely
associated with China Trade and by extension
LITERATURE a Western audience, the poetic inscription at
Anthony Lawrence, The Taipan Traders: A the side of the rectangular bolster may suggest
Portrait of Hong Kong’s days of youth from the otherwise. Taken from the poem Qing ping
finest collection of China Trade paintings, Hong diao [The Quiet, Peaceful Melody] by Tang
Kong, 1992, pp. 88-89 dynasty poet Li Bai, the prose describes the
beauty of Yang Guifei, imperial consort and one
Expertly conceived and stunningly beautiful, of the four great beauties in Chinese history.
the present example demonstrates high This seemingly suggests the refinement of the
levels of technical mastery and competency, sitter is comparable to that of the woman who
representing the zenith of Chinese oil paintings epitomized female elegance in Chinese history.
in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present This literary reference, inscribed with care
painting belongs to a select group of oil and meant to be implicitly understood by the
paintings depicting a nursing scene, and at viewer, suggests that the intended audience is
least three others of similar quality and size perhaps Chinese after all.
are published. According to H. A. Crosby
Forbes in an article written for the Museum of The popularity of the subject can be seen in
the American China Trade, ‘Gift of Previously other related paintings of smaller size, including
one illustrated in Patrick Conner, Paintings of
Unpublished China Trade Painting’, Newsletter,
vol. 3, no. 12, March 1974, three examples the China Trade: The Sze Yuan Tang Collection
were known at the time of publication: one, of Historic Paintings, Hong Kong, 2013, pl. 150,
almost identical to the present example, but and a pair sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th
September, 1992, lot 1910.
without the aubergine-ground robe hanging in
the background, formerly in the collection of
Forbes House Museum, Milton Massachusetts, $ 80,000-120,000
now in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem,
Massachusetts; a second example depicting the
central figure with a blue robe and red trousers, 清 約1870年 母嬰圖 油畫 裝框
and the background with a waterfront scene of
Canton (Guangdong), formerly in the collection 來源
of the Independence Seaport Museum, Charlotte Horstmann and Gerald Godfrey Ltd.，
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and sold in these 香港
rooms, 15th-16th September, 2015, lot 221;
and a third that, during the time of publication, 出版
was in the possession of Samuel L. Lowe, Jr.
Antiques, Boston, Massachusetts. Anthony Lawrence，《The Taipan Traders:
A Portrait of Hong Kong’s days of youth
Compare a closely related example, also
depicting the lady wearing an apricot-yellow from the finest collection of China Trade
robe and blue trousers as in the present paintings》，香港，1992年，頁88-89

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