A RARE PAIR OF ENAMELED 'LUOHAN' DISHES, SIGNED WANG BU, REPUBLIC PERIOD
Auction Closed
September 23, 08:35 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A RARE PAIR OF ENAMELED 'LUOHAN' DISHES, SIGNED WANG BU
REPUBLIC PERIOD
民國 粉彩海慧談經圖盤一對 《長湖》款
each masterfully painted in a highly eccentric style, the first depicting a luohan seated on a mat of leaves and holding a long slab supporting a small cup, with a pile of sutra albums set aside and a misty waterfall in the background, accompanied by four stylized archaistic characters reading Haihui tanjing (Haihui discussing sutra), followed by an inscription and two characters Zhuxi and a square seal Wang Bu, the base inscribed with a two-character seal mark changhu (long lake); the second painted with a seated luohan contemplating among vaporous clouds, similarly inscribed and marked (2)
題識：
海慧談經 竹溪
印文：
王步
Diameter 8⅝ in., 22 cm
French Private Collection, acquired at Hôtel Drouot, Paris (by repute).
來源
法國私人收藏，購於德魯奧拍賣行，巴黎（傳）
Wang Bu (1898-1968), zi Renyuan, hao Zhuxi, a native of Fengcheng, Jiangxi province, was a prominent porcelain painter of the early 20th century, whose name was equally regarded as the esteemed Eight Friends of Zhushan. While Wang Bu was mostly renowned for his brilliantly painted blue and white works, he was also celebrated for his remarkably distinctive painting style of luohan, which is characterized by use of highly expressive, exaggerated brushwork and the strong contrast of iron red, grisaille, and sepia colorations. Only a small number of related luohan paintings on porcelain have been recorded. Compare a similarly painted plaque of Amitabha, published in Tie Yuan and Xi Ming, Minguo ciqi jianding wenshi kuanzhi bianwei [The Republic of China Porcelain on Inspection. Pattern, Inscription, and Bibliotic], Beijing, 2004, p. 168, fig. 230; and another plaque, painted with a luohan seated by a waterfall, sold at Christie's New York, 19th-20th September 2013, lot 1431.