Shen Zhou 1427-1509

signed Changzhou Shen Zhou, with a lengthy inscription, and three seals of the artist, yong yun ju, shen qi nan shi, bai shi weng, and several collectors' seals, including zhi quan shen ding, quan wan zhen cang, guo shi quan wan lou cang, shu hua fang.

Attached frontispiece by Wu Zheng (1878-1904). Attached colophons by Weng Tonghe (1830-1904); Jiang Junong; and Wu Yusheng (1854-1940).

Following Shen Zhou's original handscroll is a copy of the painting and the inscription by Wu Dacheng (1835-1902), mounted on paper with decorated prunus design painted by Wu Hufan (1894-1968). Additional colophons (to the copy) by Gu Yun (1835-1896), Yang Xian (1819-1896), Fei Nianci (1855-1905), Zhu Shouyong, and Weng Tonghe. Title label by Wu Hufan, dated dingmao (1927), indicating that he had the Wu Dacheng copy mounted together with the Shen Zhou original into a single handscroll.

Sotheby's New York, Fine Chinese Paintings, June 3, 1986, lot 8

Shina Nanga Taisei, Tokyo, Kobunsha, 1935, vol. XVI, pl. 36-37

-The paper bears a tanning tone due to age -Restorations and minor paper loss can be found throughout the painting -The illustrated colors appear to be too bright compared to the actual piece
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Neither the painting nor the inscription are dated, however, in his inscription Shen Zhou records a trip that he made during the third month of 1499. Shen visited Yixing, in Jiangsu province, where he spent twenty-one days with his friend Wu Daben (Wu Lun). Wu accompanied Shen to visit Zhang Gong grotto. Shen's lengthy inscription describes the journey to the grotto.

Weng Tonghe's colophon notes, in part:
When I acquired Qinan's (Shen Zhou) 'Zhang Gong Grotto' handscroll, I believed it to be wonderful and of unparalleled quality. Little did I know that in fact the original was in the collection of my Elder Brother Kezhai (Wu Dacheng)!

A virtually identical painting, from the collection of H. C. Weng, is published by Richard Edwards in The Field of Stones, Pl. 36. According to Edwards, that painting was previously in the collection of Weng Tonghe, and we may presume that it is the spurious version to which Weng refers in his colophon to this work.