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Lot 219
IN THE STYLE OF ZHAO MENGFU (1254 -1322)
Estimated Value:
1.500 € - 2.500 €
Schätzpreis:
2.800 €
Description:
China, ca. 18th c.31,7 x 110 cm
Lady Wenji’s Return to China. Handscroll, ink on silk. On the frontispiece calligraphy in cursive script: “Original work by Zhao Mengfu”, signed: “Respectfully inscribed by You Ziping”. One seal: “You Ziping yin”. Signature at the end of the painting: „On the second day in midwinter of the fourth year of the zhizheng period (1344), Zhao Mengfu“. Two seals of the artist: “Zi’ang”, “Wuxing …jia”. One more seal of the artist at the beginning of the painting: “Zhao shi Zi’ang”. Three collector’s seals: “Cheng Song…, “Song Qing jiancang” etc. After the painting a colophon in regular script, signed: “Occasionally inscribed by the Old Man Poce”. Three seals: “Hong yin”, “gengyin” etc.
From a private collection in southern Germany, mostly acquired in Hong Kong and Jakarta in the 1960s/1970s
The scroll depicts a scene from the famous story of the Chinese scholar-poet Lady Wenji’s captivity by northern nomads in A.D. 195 and her return to China twelve years later. While the Chinese envoy is waiting on horseback Lady Wenji is shown saying goodbye to her nomad husband and her two children. The painting is executed in pure line ink drawing, which is associated with Zhao Mengfu, and with light ink shading in the depiction of the garments of the figures. The interesting and moving scenes follow an old original model but are done later
