SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509) - photo 1
SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509) - photo 2
SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509) - photo 3
SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509) - photo 4

SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509)

Lot 832
03.12.2022 10:30UTC +08:00
Classic
Starting price
HKD 12 000 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationHong Kong, Hong Kong
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 862800
Lot 832 | SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509)
Estimate value
HKD 12 000 000 – 20 000 000
SHEN ZHOU (1427-1509)

A Tranquil Place

Handscroll, ink and colour on paper

30.8 x 333 cm. (12 1/2 x 131 1/8 in)

Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist

Dated spring, bingchen year of the Hongzhi period (1496)

Poem inscription by Zhu Yunming (1460-1526), signed with one seal

Colophons by Gu Wenbin (1811-1889), Song Bolu (1854-1952) and Hu Bichen (1868-1925), with a total of three seals

Nine collector’s seals, including three of Gu Wenbin and five of Pei Jingfu (1854-1924)





Provenance

Gu Wenbin – Guo Yun Lou Collection.

Pei Jingfu – Zhuang Tao Ge Collection.

Lot 864, 26 November 2007, Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy, Christie’s Hong Kong.



Literature

Pei Jingfu, Records of Paintings and Calligraphy in Zhuang Tao Ge, Vol. 9, in Records of Paintings and Calligraphy in Zhuang Tao Ge (3), Chung Hua Bookstore, Taipei, February 1971, pp.580-581.

Song Bolu, Notes on Wonderful Paintings and Calligraphy, in Complete Compendium of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Vol.14, Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing, Shanghai, October 1999, p.325.

Guo Weiqu ed., Chronicles of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Calligraphers and Painters, Chinese Classical Art Publishing, Beijing, November 1958, p.138.

Ruan Rongchun, Research Compendium on the Ming and Qing Masters of Chinese Painting, Jilin Fine Art Publishing, Changshun, 1996, p.246.

A Tranquil Place by Shen Zhou, (Collotype Print), Wuxi Polytechnic Collotype Plate Production House.

Shina nanga taisei (Chinese Paintings) Vol. 15, Kobunsha, Tokyo, March 1936, pp.15-16.

Shigeo Nakamura, The Art of Shen Zhou, Bunkado, Kyoto, April 1982, p.245.

Colophons on Chinese Paintings by Ming and Qing Celebrities, Shaanxi People’s Fine Art Publishing, Xi’an, 2000, pp.227-229. (Colophons of Zhu Yunming, Gu Wennin and Song Bolu)

Collection of Chinese Paintings, Vol. 9, Guan Ling Shu She, Yangzhou, September 2004, p.2153.

Illustrated Chronological Catalogue of the Paintings by Shen Zhou, Vol. 2, Tianjin People’s Fine Art Publishing, Tianjin, 2012, pp.355-357.



Post lot text

A Perfect Duo of the Wu School – The Allure of A Tranquil Place

A pioneer of the Wu School of paintings and one of the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty, Shen Zhou (1427-1509) not only excelled at poetry, calligraphy and painting but also was a man of noble character. His guidance and support to the literati in the Jiangnan area like Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), Zhu Yunming (1460-1526), Tang Yin (1470-1524) and Xu Zhenqing (1479-1511) led to the rapid development of Wu School and further enhanced his illustrious position.

Painted in 1496 when Shen Zhou was seventy years old, A Tranquil Place measures more than three metres long and is a feast to the eyes. Starting with a scholar strolling on a bridge towards a residence by the river, through the rolling mountains and meandering streams, there appears cottages and riverside pavilions, with fishermen on their sampans, travelers on a cross-river boat, and a pensive intellectual seating in front of his books while listening to the sound of the waterfall. These are followed by a boardwalk bridge, some thatched cottages, trees and mountain rocks, and the handscroll ends with a scholar and his attendant crossing an arch bridge from the opposite direction.

Shen Zhou’s painting is followed by the calligraphy of Zhu Yunming – Gift for Recluse Yu - a seven-character poem composed by the calligrapher. Shen Zhou and Zhu Yunming were family friends and relatives so Shen had always been a mentor to Zhu. Shen’s painting and Zhu’s calligraphy came together without a title until the renowned collector, Pei Jingfu (1854-1924) entitled it in Records of Paintings and Calligraphy in Zhuang Tao Ge, probably inspired by a verse in Zhu’s poem.

In the 19th Century, A Tranquil Place belonged to Gu Wenbin (1811-1889), who inscribed a colophon on his treasured handscroll. Then it entered the collection of Zhuang Tao Ge of Pei Jingfu and was documented in Records of Paintings and Calligraphy in Zhuang Tao Ge. In 1936, Kobunsha in Tokyo illustrated this masterpiece in Shina nanga taisei (Chinese Paintings), which unveiled it to a wider audience and eventually made it well-known in the realm of connoisseurship.
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