Krystal Liu
Junior Specialist/Cataloguer
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
Lot 313
PU RU (1896-1963)
Elegant Conversation in a Waterside Pavilion
19 September 2023, 09:30 EDT
New YorkUS$50,000 - US$70,000
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Bruce Maclaren
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Dick Lin
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Coco Li
Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
PU RU (1896-1963)
Elegant Conversation in a Waterside Pavilion
Hanging scroll, ink on paper, inscribed by the artist and signed Xinyu, with three artist's seals reading shuimu qinghua, jiu wangsun and Pu Ru.
36 1/2 x 14 3/4in (92.9 x 37.5cm)
Hanging scroll, ink on paper, inscribed by the artist and signed Xinyu, with three artist's seals reading shuimu qinghua, jiu wangsun and Pu Ru.
36 1/2 x 14 3/4in (92.9 x 37.5cm)
Footnotes
溥儒（1896-1963） 水閣清話 水墨紙本 立軸
款識：澗水蕭蕭不斷流，巖前林木已清秋。六朝煙景斜陽裏，寫出丹青作臥遊。心畬畫。
鈐印：水木清華、舊王孫、溥儒
Provenance:
The Toushi Zhai Collection
Sungari International Auction, Beijing, 3 December 2005, lot 998
Published:
Yi, Suhao et al. eds. Toushi Zhai Cang Hua Ji (A Collection of Paintings from Toushi Zhai). Beijing: Changcheng Publishing House, 2005, no. 98, pp. 195-196
來源：
投石齋舊藏
中貿聖佳，北京，2005年12月3日，拍品編號998
著錄：
易蘇昊等編《投石齋藏畫集》北京：長城出版社，2005，圖錄編號98，頁195-196
The present lot stands as an epitome of Pu Ru's prodigious mastery of brushwork and his unwavering foundation in calligraphic technique. The monochrome landscape showcases an array of meticulously arranged brush strokes, with the sharp "nail-head" strokes for rendering mountains and rocks, juxtaposed with the flowing cursive-script strokes utilized to depict the undulating waves of the stream. Regarding the relationship between brush and ink (bi mo), Pu Ru held a preference for the lucid presentation of brushwork (yong bi) over the dominance of ink washes (yong mo).1
Pu Ru embarked on his journey of self-taught Chinese painting subsequent to his seclusion in 1912 in the Jietai Temple at Mount Ma'an (also known as West Mountain) to the west of Beijing, a move coinciding with the aftermath of the 1911 Revolution. He once revealed that his fervor for painting was ignited by his engagement with pianwen, a type of highly stylized prose featuring textual parallelism. Viewing a work by Pu Ru is akin to reading pianwen; it requires you to slow down to apprehend the resplendent nuances created by various brushwork techniques.
The Toushi Zhai Collection showcases artworks crafted by prominent artists from both the Shanghai School and the Beijing-Tianjin School, spanning the late 19th to early 20th century. In 2005, Sungari Beijing hosted an auction featuring 140 selective pieces from this collection. Among the top lots were paintings by Lu Yifei (1908-1997), Xu Cao (1899-1961) and Chen Zhifo (1896-1962).
1Pu Ru, "Pu Hsin-Yu's Notes on Painting and Calligraphy" in Chang in the South and Pu in the North: Selected Paintings and Calligraphic Works of Pu Hsin-Yu from Taibei Museum of History, Hubei Provincial Museum ed. (Wuhan: Hubei People's Publishing House, 2009), pp. 128-131.
此墨色山水軸用筆瘦勁清健，佈局氣勢雄渾，往細處看又不乏宛然可愛，體現了溥儒卓犖的筆墨造詣和法書涵養。山石皴法采釘頭及小斧劈；清波細浪則用草書法也，"筆須圓轉而無棱角"；"筆墨多是一遍畫成，少復筆積墨"。就筆與墨之關係，溥儒認為"與其無筆寧可無墨"，即應更注重所繪事物之骨相，形色次之，若骨肉不可兼得，則寧可多皴皺而少渲染。
辛亥革命後，溥儒隨母隱居北京西郊馬鞍山，期間自學繪畫。曾言"余性喜文藻，於治經之外，而多喜作駢驪之文。駢驪近畫，故又喜畫"。1 觀此幅溥儒山水，亦有於字裡行間尋幽探微之趣。
投石齋收藏以清末至二十世紀海派及京津派藝術家作品為重，其中140件作品於2005年經中貿聖佳"投石齋藏畫集"專場拍賣釋出，包括陸抑非（1908-1997）、徐操（1899-1961）及陳之佛（1896-1962）等名家之作。
1 溥儒《溥心畬"論書畫"——寒玉堂論書畫真書獲麟解》，收錄於湖北省博物館編《南張北溥——臺北歷史博物館藏溥心畬書畫精品》（武漢：湖北人民出版社，2009），頁128-131