Bottle ID: 00450

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LIU DASHENG, CRYSTAL PAIR DEPICTING OCCUPATIONS IN FOUR SEASONS

Date: 1993

Height: 71 mm

A pair of crystal snuff bottles, ink and watercolors, both of rectangular form with rounded shoulders, painted on the inside to depict the Four Noble Occupations (fisherman, farmer, woodcutter and scholar) in different seasons, each inscribed with two seals Ji and Yin:

Spring:

'Out on the river in springtime - boats of fishers in their bamboo capes and hats', painted by Liu Dasheng, at Beijing, early winter, guiyou year'

Winter:

'Even 'til now I still cherish those golden years; Scenes of the Four Seasons and the Four Occupations, with Fishers, Wood-gatherers, a Ploughman and a Scholar, for the elegant criticism of Miss Guo'an'.

Summer:

'Don't laugh at the mountain wood-gatherers who tread the morning mist, second month of summer, guiyou year, made in Beijing'.

Autumn:

'And see the solitary ploughman who ploughs his verdant fields, for the elegant criticism of Miss Guo'an, Made by Liu Dasheng'.

Similar Examples:

Leung J. H. A New Look of Chinese Inside Painted Snuff Bottles, 1990, p. 50, nos. 75 and 76.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, October 30, 2000, lot 699
Guo'an Collection, purchased from the artist, 1993

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

J. H. Leung, who wrote the book "A New Look of Chinese Inside Painted Snuff Bottles", also wrote the poem that Liu Dasheng uses for these bottles. The scenes on the bottles are taken almost directly from a pair of bottles by the contemporary artist Chen Renpu of the Ji School, who painted them in 1979. Leung tells the story that he gave the poem that he wrote to Chen and commissioned him to make a pair of bottles for him, since he thought that Chen's landscapes were of exceptional quality. Leung had originally hoped that Chen's master, Wang Xisan, would paint the bottles but Wang was very busy at the time. However, when Leung received the bottles, he was very satisfied as the quality was so high. As a sign of his gratitude, he presented Chen with enlarged twenty inch photographs of the bottles. When Liu Dasheng saw these he admired Chen's work greatly and noted "for every able person there is one still more able". Liu must have admired Chen's bottles so much that when given the opportunity, he reproduced them in his own style when commissioned by a European collector.

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