Footnotes

Treasury 4, no. 661


水晶內畫蕭恩蕭桂英鼻煙壺
壺：1760～1870
內畫：王習三，北京北太平莊，1965年

A Fisherman's Daughter

Flawless crystal, ink, and watercolours; with a concave lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; painted on each main side with portraits of actors playing roles from the opera Dayu shajia (A Fisherman Kills a Family), one side depicting the role of Xiao En, holding a sword behind his back, inscribed in clerical script with the title 'Xiao En in Dayu shajia,' followed in draft script by 'Executed in early winter of the year yisi at the capital,' the inscriptions preceded by one seal, Jingju (Beijing opera) and followed by two seals of the artist, Wang and Xisan, all in negative seal script, the other side showing the role of Xiao En's daughter, Xiao Guiying, holding the handle of a paddle, inscribed in clerical script with the title 'Xiao Guiying,' followed in draft script by 'Executed by Wang Xisan,' followed by one seal of the artist, yin (seal), in negative seal script, with another in the lower left-hand corner, yujianü (a fisherman's daughter)
Bottle: 1760–1870
Painting: Wang Xisan, Taiping zhuang, Beijing vicinity, 1965
Height: 6.4 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.80/2.38 cm
Stopper: glass; turquoise collar
Condition: Bottle: perfect; Painting: studio condition

Provenance:
Beijing Arts and Crafts Corporation (circa 1967)
Hugh M. Moss Ltd
Joan Wasserman
Sotheby's, London, 6 June 1988, lot 322
Hugh M. Moss Ltd
Published:
JICSBS, Summer 1984, p. 21, fig. 2
Treasury 4, no. 661
Exhibited: Christie's, London, 1999

Commentary
When Wang Xisan published this bottle he commented as follows:

I admire extremely the art of inside-painted portraits by Ma Shaoxuan, whose inside-painted portrait of Tan Xinpei in theatrical costume in the role of General Huang Zhong in Beijing opera 'Ding Jun Mountain' was an excellent work greatly admired by art lovers.

Out of this admiration, Wang Xisan became one of the great portrait painters in the medium, producing a series of opera subjects including some from the newly written Communist operas that were so popular at the time. He also painted famous figures from history, living politicians, members of the British Royal Family, and portraits of various collectors and their families as commissions (see, for instance, the two here, Treasury 4, nos. 672 and 673). He even painted a portrait of himself, holding an inside-painted snuff bottle (see Leung 1990, p. 34, no. 28). His series of portraits culminated in the sets of Qing emperors and their wives and the then thirty-nine presidents of the United States (ibid., pp. 37a–37d, and pp. 35 and 36), the latter an extraordinary tour de force where the individual quality and sensitivity of each portrait is in danger of being swamped by their sheer number when seen all together, not to mention by their gold stoppers and labels when viewed in their specially fitted trays.

While admiring Ma Shaoxuan's portraiture, Wang was not satisfied with its method, preferring the portraiture of the Western oil-painting tradition. Ma Shaoxuan himself had set about blending Eastern and Western traditions for his portraits, but Wang went one stage further by adopting Western oil-painting methods, which he had learned, and adapting them for painting inside the snuff bottle. This led to the invention of some new tools for the medium, including a small pad tied to the end of a bamboo pen, which facilitated the blending together of colours. We can see the seeds of Wang's new method here, but it is still a long way from the full-fledged, oil-painting style of his later portraits (see, for instance, ibid., p. 31, where a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is backed by another of the Prince of Wales with Lady Diana Spencer, after they became engaged). Compared to them, this is much closer to the style and method of Ma Shaoxuan, but with added colour. It remains one of his masterpieces and it exhibits another unusual feature of portrait painting in this medium: the hands are shown. Not only are they shown, but they are extremely well painted. Ma Shaoxuan could also paint hands, which are difficult to depict convincingly, but generally did so mainly on his Beijing opera portraits. His monochrome portraits of dignitaries do not, as a rule, show the hands. Wang Xisan, consummate artist that he was, however, could paint anything convincingly, so when appropriate, as it is here, he included the hands in his portraits.

For the entertaining story of the opera involved here, see Treasury 4, no. 623. For another of Wang's most impressive opera subjects, the Dwyer portrait which is also dated to 1965, see Christie's, London, 12 October 1987, lot 74. For an example of his Communist opera series, of which he did several, particularly while under political pressure during the Cultural Revolution, see Leung 1990, p. 27, fig. 1.

父女打漁在河下，家貧哪怕人笑咱

無瑕水晶、墨、水彩；凸面唇、平斂底、突出平底圈足；腹兩面內畫京劇《打漁殺家》主要的角色，蕭恩與蕭桂英，蕭恩背後拿著男單刀，其左隸書題曰："打漁殺家之蕭恩"，行書記曰"乙巳年初冬作於京師"，後繪白文 "王"、"習三" 二印，蕭桂英一手拿著槳，其右隸書題曰"簫［原文如此］桂英"， 行書記曰"王習三作"，後繪白文 "印" 一印，左下又落白文 "漁家女" 一印

壺：1760～1870
內畫：王習三，北京北太平莊，1965年
高：6.4 厘米
口經/唇經：0.80/2.38 厘米
蓋：玻璃，綠松石座
狀態敘述：壺：完善；內畫：出齋狀態

來源：
北京工藝美術公司，約1967年
Hugh M. Moss Ltd
Joan Wasserman
蘇富比，倫敦，1988年6月6日，拍賣品號322
Hugh M. Moss Ltd
文獻：
《國際中國鼻煙壺協會的學術期刊》Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society 1984夏期，頁21，圖2
展覽：
佳士得，倫敦，1999年

說明：
王習三非常仰慕馬少宣的內畫人像，因而自己成為內畫肖像的大師。他不但畫了許多京劇（包括革命京劇）角色的肖像，也畫了世界諸領袖人像和煙壺收藏家及其家眷肖像，甚至也畫了自己拿著內畫鼻煙壺的自畫像（見Leung 1990 ，頁34，編號28）。他還作了一套《清歷代皇帝、皇后系列肖像畫》，即十二位皇帝和十位皇后的肖像，和美國三十九位總統的肖像（同上，頁37a–37d、頁35，36）。後者特別是精心傑作，只是同時觀賞全套帶黃金蓋和黃金標記、安臥在特製的套匣之內的這系列煙壺，很容易忽略每一傳神人像的微妙。

王習三還把西方油畫技術引進內畫，因而研製了些新的內畫工具，包括在竹筆一端上捆的小氈子，用它來混合色彩，效果很像油畫技法。本壺尚未達到後來用油畫技法的程度，王習三仍然是用馬少宣的筆法而加上顏色的。本壺也呈現內畫人像的一個特點：手也畫上了。不但畫上了，也畫得很好。畫人難畫手，可是在戲曲舞台上，手是人的第二張臉，繪畫京劇人物時，馬少宣和王習三當然要繪畫出手勢。王習甚麼都能畫，蕭桂英右手以"蘭花指"手勢來表示她矜持不苟，是必不可少的細節。

王習三京劇題材特別精彩的一件煙壺還有佳士得，倫敦，1987年10月12日，賣品號74。革命京劇題材的可參見上舉Leung 1990, 頁27，圖1。