A BAMBOO BRUSHPOT BY WU ZHIFAN QING DYNASTY, 17TH / 18TH CENTURY

of cylindrical form, the exterior crisply carved in varying relief with the renowned poet and scholar Meng Haoren riding a donkey, his left hand hidden under a loose sleeve raised to his mouth as he hunches forward, followed by an attendant looking back over one shoulder while holding a branch of flowering prunus across the other, all in a continuous landscape with a waterfall amongst craggy rocks and gnarled pine trees, inscribed on one of the rocks with a poem in clerical script, followed by the signature Wu Zhifan, the bamboo of a deep reddish-brown town with lustrous patina, mounted with a wooden mouthrim, supported on a bulging wood base set on three low feet

Apart from some typical age cracks which have been stabilised, as well as some minor surface scratches, the overall condition is quite good. The brushpot has an attractive patina. The actual colour is of a darker and warmer reddish-brown tone compared with the catalogue illustration.
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The present exquisitely carved brushpot is the work of master carver Wu Zhifan, active during the early Qing period. The subject matter which shows a figure riding on a donkey in the winter, as suggested by the blooms of the plum tree, is one that became a standard image found on works of art of this period. There are several possible interpretations of the identity of the figure, as discussed by Ka Bo Tsang in ‘Who Is the Rider on the Donkey? Some New Observations’ in JICSBS, Summer 1994, pp. 4-16, where Tsang concludes that the most likely candidate for this particular scene is the reclusive Tang poet, Meng Haoran. This appears to be confirmed by the poem engraved on this piece, titled Ti Meng Haoran tu ('Inscribed on a picture of Meng Haoran') in the works of its author, Yu Qian (1398-1457):

           On a lame donkey, in a tattered hat, pursued by wind-blown dust,
           By the time he’s passed the little bridge, sunlight is already slanting,
           He’s twirled his silver beard until worn out but the poem’s still not right;
           The master’s mind is not on the magnificence of plum blossoms.

Ip Yee and Laurence C. S. Tam in Chinese Bamboo Carving, Hong Kong, 1978 and 1982, part 2, p. 128, list Wu Zhifan, zi Luzhen and hao Donghai daoren, as a native of Jiading, Jiangsu province, who later settled in Tianjin. He was active in the Kangxi period and is recorded as the first to carve figures and other forms in low relief on an almost plain background. In fact, he became renowned for his undecorated background which he used extensively, and for his depiction of pine trees that are seen in this example. He was also famous for pictorial compositions with special reference to the representation of depth.

A number of brushpots bear Wu’s signature: a boxwood brushpot from the Qing court collection and still in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu chuanji [A comprehensive collection of Chinese fine arts], vol. 11, Beijing, 1987, pl. 13, and also included in the exhibition catalogue Bamboo Carving of China, China Institute in America, 1983, figs. 51 and 51a. The Palace Museum brushpot is most possibly the one mentioned in an exchange recorded in the fortieth year of Qianlong’s reign (corresponding to 1775) when the emperor asked who Luzhen was. Consulting a book by Lu Tingcan of Jiading, his ministers were able to identify Wu, after which he became famous for his outstanding quality of carving and artistry. See Yu Jianhua, ed., Zhongguo meishujia renming cidian [A biographical dictionary of Chinese artists], Shanghai, 1980, pp. 277-78. The boxwood brushpot has several features in common with the present example. Both have figures set in a rocky landscape scene where the rocks are of a distinctive composition, with vertical stone faces topped and edged with a series of irregular, varied, boulder-like protrusions. This style of rockwork is individual, quite different from the standard rockwork seen on works by the established Jiading carvers who were active at the same time. The pine trees seen on the two vessels are also very similar in style. The ancient trees are carved with enormous knot-holes, where branches have been removed in the base, and the trunks consisting of alternating plain areas and beautifully modulated ‘scales’. The branches in each act like poetic calligraphic lines. The animals and figures are also similar in their depiction and style of carving, expertly conceived and executed.  The signatures on the boxwood example and on the present example are also closely related. 

Wu is said to have acquired the traditional Jiading style and excelled in high-relief carving. It was however, his distinctive pioneering style of depicting figures and landscape in shallow relief against minimal background which made him one of the most important bamboo carving artists of the period. The present brushpot, although with slightly shallower relief compared to the Beijing Palace Museum boxwood example, distinguishes itself by the dense layers of carving from the later bamboo works which were executed in a more simplistic way. It is probably an early work by the artist completed before his style matured. Compare a brushpot probably from Wu’s later career when he began to simplify or completely remove any background detail, the rubbing of which is illustrated in Wang Shixiang, Zhuke jianshang [Appreciation of bamboo carving], Taipei, 1997, p. 53, no. 10. Depicted also with a scholar riding a donkey, followed by an attendant holding a sprig of prunus, that brushpot displays a similar composition to the present work, only in a sleeker and more simplified style without the rocky landscape.

For other bamboo carvings by Wu see two brushpots published in Zhongguo meishu chuanji, op.cit., pls. 11-12; and one depicting an archer standing beside his horse beneath pines and aiming at a goose, from the Bei Shan Tang collection, published in Yee and Tam, op.cit., part 1, pl. 43. A further brushpot with Wu’s signature and a date corresponding to 1687 is illustrated in Scholar’s Accoutrements from the Jiansong Ge Collection, Taipei, 2004, p. 70.