Footnotes

Treasury 4, no. 486


玻璃內畫鼻煙壺
內畫：周樂元，北京，1890年


Searching for Prunus Blossoms in the Snow

Glass, ink, and watercolours; with a slightly concave lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding convex footrim; painted on one main side with a herdboy, seated playing a flute on the back of his water buffalo, wading home between reed banks in a river, beneath two willow trees on the near bank, with hills beyond, inscribed in draft script with a poem followed by one seal of the artist, yuan yin (seal of yuan), in negative seal script, the other main side with a winter landscape scene of a river running between mountainous peaks towards a foreground stone bridge with blossoming prunus trees, with a scholar on a donkey crossing the bridge followed by his attendant carrying a branch of flowering prunus, inscribed in draft script 'Executed in the eighth month of the year gengyin at the capital by Zhou Leyuan,' followed by one seal of the artist, le, in negative seal script

Zhou Leyuan, Studio of Lotus-root Fragrance, Xuannan, Beijing, eighth month, 1890
Height: 6.62 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.55 /1.59 cm
Stopper: tourmaline; vinyl collar
Condition: Bottle: perfect. Painting: studio condition

Illustration: watercolour by Malcolm Golding, 1971

Provenance:
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (circa 1964)
Lady Cain (circa 1973)
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (circa 1973)
Irving Lindzon
Christie's, London, 12 October 1987, lot 321

Published:
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 317
Treasury 4, no. 486

Exhibited:
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March–June 1994
National Museum, Singapore, November 1994–February 1995
Christie's, London, 1999

Commentary:
This is one of Zhou Leyuan's great masterpieces from the later period. It is also in studio condition and may never have been used. One can understand why a late Qing aesthete would hesitate to put snuff against such a delicate and lovely painting. One gets the impression that the artist pulled out all the artistic stops on this one and went for gold.

Here Zhou combines two rare compositions, the boy on the water buffalo and a figure on a donkey searching for prunus blossoms in the snow. While the first subject is a standard, if occasional one for his later years (see discussion under Treasury 4, no. 480), his painting of it is unparalleled in its compositional power, masterful technique and subtle use of ink and colours. The other side is a much rarer image, seen only very occasionally in his later years. The balance of the strongly painted and quite brightly coloured foreground with the snowy valley winding upwards away from the viewer and painted only in pale shades of ink is a masterpiece, and the subtlety of the distant, snow-covered mountains from which the chill stream emerges, quite breathtaking. There may be other Zhou Leyuan paintings as fine, but there is nothing better or more compelling in conveying the images he has chosen and the mood they are intended to invoke.
The poem inscribed on the side with the boy on his water buffalo is 'A Village at Dusk' written by Lei Zhen of the Northern Song period, quoted and discussed under Treasury 4, no. 480. It reads:

The pond is overgrown with grass, the water reaching up to the slopes.
The hills [are about to] swallow the setting sun as it dips into the chilly ripples.
As the herdboy returns home riding sideways on his water buffalo,
He randomly plays a small flute, letting out strings of notes that do not seem to make up any particular melody.

On the other side the figure on the donkey is probably a generalized representation rather than any specific person, although see the various possible individuals proposed in Ka Bo Tsang 1994.



雪霽策蹇尋梅歸

玻璃、墨、水色；略凹唇、斂凸底、突出凸形圈足；一面內畫牛童吹笛景致，上題行書"草滿池塘水滿陂。山銜落日浸寒漪。牧童歸去橫牛背，短笛無腔信口吹"宋詩人雷震一首七絕，其左繪白文"元印"一篆印，另一面內畫一文士騎驢過石橋，其童子肩起一大枝梅花隨著，上題"庚寅仲秋作於都門，周樂元仿古"，其左繪白文"樂"一篆印

內畫：周樂元，藕香書軒，宣南房舍，北京，1890年8 月
高：6.62 厘米
口經/唇經：0.55/1.59 厘米
蓋：碧璽，乙烯基座
狀態敘述: 壺：完善；內畫：出齋狀況

有Malcolm Golding 水彩畫 (ca. 1971)

來源：
Hugh M. Moss, Ltd（約1964）
Cain夫人（約1973）
Hugh M. Moss, Ltd （約1973）
Irving Lindzon
佳士得，倫敦，1987年10 月12日 ，拍賣品號321
文獻﹕
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, 編號317
Treasury 4, 編號486
展覽﹕
香港藝術館，1994年3 月～6月
National Museum of Singapore, 1994年11月～1995年2 月
佳士得，倫敦，1999年

說明：
這是周樂元後期的傑作之一。牛童吹笛是常見的題材，周樂元晚年不時用之，這幅內畫布局新奇，墨法色法微妙。學士騎驢過橋更少見，周樂元晚年很少用這個題材。前景和背景的對襯，即上輕下重的布局，特別有趣。