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PROPERTY OF ANOTHER OWNER
A pair of figural porcelain plaques depicting Li Bai and Tao Yuanming
Republic periodOf tall rectangular section, the first depicting the poet Li Bai as a slightly disheveled scholar holding his cup towards the moon beneath a wutong tree while his boy acolyte holds a wine ewer nearby, the inscription including the signature He Xuren as well as red seals reading Xuren and He Chu with additional seal reading qinglian zuijiu; the second depicting the older Tao Yuanming beneath a different gnarled tree, peering down at the basket of chrysanthemums proffered by his own boy attendant, the inscription including the signature reading He Chu as well as red seals reading Xu Ren and He Chu with additional red seal on the bottom of the plaque reading Yuanming cai ju. 32in (81.3cm) visible height of porcelain (2).
注脚
He Xuren, sobriquet He Chu (1882-1941), was a member of the Eight Friends of Zhushan school of porcelain painters, known almost exclusively for his snow scenes. In fact, examples of He's work of any subject matter without snow seem to be relatively rare: see the tiny seals depicting spring landscapes offered as lot 360 in Christies South Kensington sale of 12 May 2017 or the small moonflask depicting river landscapes offered as lot 304 in Sotheby's London sale of 5 November 2014. Unlike those two and other examples offered by Bonhams in the past, the present lot seems to be more reminiscent of and compares favorably with the best work of his mentor and teacher Wang Qi-- note the stunning juxtaposition of the hyper-realistic faces with the more stylized scholarly attire. The only hints of the typical grisaille techniques more familiar to He Xuren and his snow scenes is the small corner of dusty and smoky moonlit night at the upper left corner of the Li Bai plaque.