Gong Xian fled Nanjing when the city fell to the Manchus in 1645, and during this chaotic period, several members of his family perished. "Preserved through reclusion and purified in retirement," Gong came to terms with himself as an yimin, "leftover subject," under the new Qing dynasty.
The loose treatment of landscape elements in this album, as defined by bold contour lines and repetitive clusters of dots, is indicative of its late date, probably around 1688. The contrast between pale ink washes and dark dots that enabled Gong to achieve both incredible density and translucency in his paintings is echoed by the contrasting dark and pale passages in his poetic inscriptions, which reflect the artist's spontaneous reinking of his brush.
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Artwork Details
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清 龔賢 山水圖 冊
Title:Landscapes
Artist:Gong Xian (Chinese, 1619–1689)
Period:Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Date:1680s
Culture:China
Medium:Album of six paintings; ink on paper
Dimensions:Each: 8 3/4 x 17 3/8 in. (22.2 x 44.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Sackler Fund, 1969
Object Number:69.242.16–.21
Signature:
Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signature
Leaf A (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
My home is at Yellow-Leaves Village in Jiangnan. This is a poetic subject. Can’t one express it with a brush?
家在江南黃葉村，此詩題也。獨不可從筆頭寫成乎。
Leaf B (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
I once asked a mountain dweller If there are more clouds where there are more mountains. The mountain dweller replied, How about abiding by the white clouds.
借問住山人，山多雲較多。 住山人復我，無奈白雲何。
Leaf C [No Inscription]
Leaf D (5 columns in semi-cursive script):
A layer of bright moonlight shimmers across the autumn river. A pair of silver carp jumps out and looks around. Inebriated, an old fisherman sings a song; Charming performers of a professional troupe troll out of tune.
一層明月照秋江， 跳躑徐窺銀鯽雙。 醉後老漁歌一曲， 梨園婀娜不成腔。
Leaf E (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
A corridor circles the mountain’s foot, Extending around the mountain for five li [nearly two miles], One returns with the bright moon, One goes forth with the setting sun.
山足抱迴廊，依山五里長。 歸來帶明月，初去趁斜陽。
Leaf F (2 columns in semi-cursive script):
After the fisherman returns home, The empty boat is left in the bright moonlight [1]. Gong Xian
儘似漁郎歸去後， 空船拋在月明中。 龔賢
Artist’s seals
Gong Xian yin 龔賢印 (leaf A, C, D, E, F) Banqian 半千 (leaves B, F)
Collector’s seals
Hu Xiaozhuo 胡小琢 （19th c.） Hu Xiaozhuo cang 胡小琢藏 (leaves A, B, C, F) Deyi Xuan cang 得一軒藏 (leaf F)
[1] Translations from Department records
Richard B. Hobart , Cambridge, MA (by 1959 until d. 1963, posthumous sale at Parke-Bernet, the Richard Bryant Hobart collection of Chinese ceramics & paintings, part 2, December 12, 1969, lot 273, New York, to MMA)
Princeton University. "Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Painting from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in NY and Princeton," December 8, 1973–February 3, 1974.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Painting from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in NY and Princeton," July 10, 1974–September 2, 1974.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Studies in Connoisseurship: Chinese Painting from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection in NY and Princeton," September 15, 1974–November 3, 1974.
University of Edinburgh, Scotland. "Edinburgh Festival," August 1, 1984–September 15, 1984.
Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Chinese Paintings from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection," April 15, 1986–June 29, 1986.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art," July 31, 2021–August 14, 2022.
Goepper, Roger, and Tseng Yu-ho. 1000 Jahre Chinesische Malerei (1000 Years of Chinese Painting). Exh. cat. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1960, pp. 212–13, cat. no. 124.
Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, p. 17, cat. no. A1-090.
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