Lot 151
  • 151

Hua Xuan (circa 1736)

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description

  • Hua Xuan (circa 1736)
  • Eight Beauties
  • ink and colors on silk, original silk border, laid down on canvas and stretched on a wooden frame
signed Hua Xuan, with a cyclical date bing chen corresponding to 1736, inscribed chang xia rong qi (can be translated as, 'long summer evenings by the hibiscus stream')

Provenance

E. A. Strehlneek (until 1914).
Herr Klas Fahraeus, Brevik, Stockholm.
Charlotte Horstmann & Gerald Godfrey, Ltd., Hong Kong (until 1992).
Thereafter with the present owner.

Literature

E. A. Strehlneek, Chinese Pictorial Art, Shanghai, 1914, pp. 178-183.
Anthony Lawrence, The Taipan Traders, Hong Kong, 1992, p.56.

Condition

There is overall some light stains scattered throughout the painting, particularly to the upper left hand corner and the right section of the painting, where the three ladies are. There are some stains of unusual pattern resembling parallel lines running at the bottom half of the right side, across the three ladies, which are white and red when examined up-close. There are several tears to the painting. The largest tear is an arched curved tear at the upper right corner, visible in the catalogue illustration. There is also another tear, spanding about 13 in, at the top of the painting above the lady in blue, also visible in the catalogue illustration. Both of the lower corners have some loss and tearing. The upper left corner has some wear. There is a diagonal 6 in. tear to the left of the lower right corner. There are some scratches on the painting. The largest ones are located above the lady in blue and the lady to her right, the two arched scratches span about 13 - 15 inches each. There is also a horizontal eight inch scratch on the left side of the painting, close to the center of the left edge. There are some small areas of loss of pigment and possibly some repainting, most evident at the three ladies on the far right and the single lady at the far left. There are some creases and bubbles throughout the painting from the mounting and some general scratches. Please note that the translation of the inscription provided in the catalogue was an erroneous title provided by E. A. Strehlneek in his 1914 catalogue. According to James Cahill, "rongqi ('hibiscus stream'), which was one of the painter's by-names and appears in his signature on the work ('Rongqi Hua Xuan xie'); and changxia, which means 'long summer' and which is part of the date preceding the signature ('sui zai bingcheng changxia'), which may be translated as 'The year is at the [cyclical date] bingchen [1736] changxia [sixth month].'" We are grateful to Professor Cahill for this clarification.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

This exceptionally rare painting is unusual for its large size and subject matter. The depiction of a group of women is a departure from the typical meiren (literally 'beautiful woman') paintings found during this period. Whereas the conventional depictions feature one or two women, usually in well-appointed interiors, the women in the present painting exist in a realm that blurs the public and private. Glancing "outward", the women are framed by architectural components -- a balustrade at the foreground and cornice framing the top -- that create a sense of intimacy while simultaneously providing a stage on which the women are prominently presented. These qualities, together with the large format, suggest that this painting was intended for public display.

Who were these women? According to James Cahill in the forthcoming Pictures for Use and Pleasure: Vernacular Painting in High Qing China, Berkeley, 2009, 'Conceivably, the women portrayed were real-life courtesans belonging to a particular house, like those who sometimes appear in Japanese ukiyo-e print series; although at first glance they look almost indistinguishable from one another (like the women in the Japanese prints), they exhibit subtle differentiations in facial shape and color and other features that might have permitted afficionados of the time to identify them.'

Little is known about the painter Hua Xuan, though according to Yu Jianhua in Zhongguo meishujia renming zidian, p. 1110, 'he was from Wuxi in Jiangsu, and was good at portraiture.' The cyclical date bing cheng most likely corresponds to 1736, as the facial features of the women closely resemble those in an erotic album by Xu Mei, an artist active in the early 18th century based in nearby Suzhou. The delicate facial type may also be related to those in an erotic album by the court painter Leng Mei (active early 18th century), formerly in the Dr. Ip Yee collection and sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 21st November 1984, lot 41 and illustrated in The Literati Mode: Chinese Scholar Paintings, Calligraphy and Desk Objects, London, 1986, pp. 80-89. See also the similarities of a woman in repose on a pavilion balustrade, in another Leng Mei painting, sold in these rooms, 23rd March 2004, lot 556.