Gong Xian 1619-1689

signed Gong Xian, inscribed with a poem, with two seals of the artist, gong xian yin, ban qian
Colophon by Shao Songnian (1848-1923), dated bingshen (1896) of the Guangxu reign, with two seals, shao shi bo ying, song nian bo ying
With two collector's seals of Shao Songnian (1848-1923), chang yi zi sun, song nian suo cang

Artist inscription:
Rivers and mountains all belong to the realm of fishermen and woodcutters; 
Amongst them are the houses and huts in which recluses dwell.
Playing strings and chanting, calling out and singing, after eating and drinking he remarks:
"If one is not a recluse one cannot be a fisherman or woodcutters."

Kaikodo Journal, Spring 1996, no. 23, pp. 50-53

1. Art of the Scholar-poets: Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, VA: Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond, April 1-May 9, 1998
2. Dreams of Yellow Mountain: Landscapes of Survival in Seventeenth-Century China, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 13, 2003–February 22, 2004

Chenglan shi Gu Yuan Cui Lu, Shao Songnian, vol. 8

- Paper bears a tanned tone due to age. - Foxing and stain spots can be found here and there on the scroll. - Minor restoration of paper loss. - Dedication or date of the painting was cut off and replaced with blank paper at the end of the artist inscription.
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.

Gong Xian's handscroll painting, Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains, comes with the painter's own inscription and poem. The first part of the inscription, which may have been a date or a dedication, has been removed. At the end of the scroll is a long colophon by Shao Songnian, who asks, "Can this be the one [Gong] called a 'lofty mountain'?"  Shao is wondering whether this scroll is the very painting of a "lofty mountain" that Gong Xian mentions in his inscription on his River Village (Shanghai Museum).
Although he is known to posterity as a painter, before the fall of the Ming Dynasty Gong Xian wished to follow his family's footsteps into official service. In his youth, he was an active member of the poetic societies on the shores of Qinhuai River, forging friendships through literary talent. In 1636, he participated in the activities of the Restoration Society. The Gong family was decimated in the chaos of the late Ming, and Gong Xian drifted alone until 1648, when he became a tutor at the residence of Xu Yixin in Hai'an. He remained there for five years. During this period, he wrote many poems lamenting the times and rarely painted. He then lived in Yangzhou, and in 1665 returned to Nanjing, where he lived until his death. In his Nanjing residence, the Half-Acre Garden, he taught painting and sold his works. His artistic accomplishment was due to his early exposure to the art of Dong Qichang, Cheng Zhengkui, Li Liufang, and others in Nanjing, where his father served as an official.  
Gong Xian painted the aforementioned handscroll River Village in 1682, at the age of 63. According to his own inscription, a Xu Henglin of Zhenzhou requested a painting from him through Luo Mu (1622-1705). Gong responded with "a small scroll." Later, Luo facilitated Gong's visit to Yingluanzhen in Zhenzhou to meet Xu. The two became fast friends. Xu Henglin brought out the "small scroll" that Gong had painted for him earlier, lauded it as a "lofty mountain," and expressed the wish that Gong would paint a "flowing river" to accompany it. Gong Xian gladly answered with River Village and even gave Xu the magnificent album Streams and Mountains Without End (now remounted as a hand-scroll and housed in the Palace Museum, Beijing) at the same meeting. In his inscription on Streams and Mountains Without End, Gong relates that for he used paper produced by the Song-dynasty imperial court, spent two years completing the set, and took pains to find the most effective compositions and mounting. Also in this meeting, Gong Xian accepted Xu's sponsorship. The two would maintain a fruitful partnership for many years to come.
Rolling hills and precipitous cliffs form the bulk of the composition of Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains, whereas that of River Village consists mostly of shallow banks and a meandering stream. In the former, there is no dominant peak, and watery passages space and balance the composition. In the latter, a dominant peak appears in every passage, and the mountain forms divide the composition and orchestrate the perspectives of "level" and "deep" distances. Overall, Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains has much more solidity than voidness and feels profoundly substantive, whereas River Village has more voidness than solidity and feels agile and delicate. The brushwork in Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains, including the delineation of the trees, huts, land forms, and waves, is very similar to that in River Village and Streams and Mountains Without End. They were likely painted around the same time.
Yet, Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains is executed rather more quickly, resulting in a drier tone quite apart from the carefully wrought quality of the other two paintings. This may be why Gong Xian refers to the former, with excessive modesty, as "a small scroll." In the other two paintings, although Gong also calls himself "barbarian" and "clumsy" self-deprecatingly, he still exudes a painterly confidence. If he painted a "flowing river" and a "lofty mountain" as a pair, the two scrolls must be consistent in size and content. River Village being over nine meters long, how can the accompanying "lofty mountain" truly be "a small scroll"?
Based on the above, we may make the following conjecture: Xu Henglin served as an official managing waterways and was quite well-off. When he conveyed his request for a painting to Gong Xian through Luo Mu, he must have sent a considerable payment to justify Gong's creation of the "lofty mountain" almost 10 meters long. But because at the time Gong Xian was unfamiliar with Xu, he used a more traditional form of expression and wrote somewhat short and nondescript inscription. At their meeting arranged by Luo Mu, Gong and Xu became bosom friends. Xu did not only express his admiration for Gong, but also offered to support him financially. Gong was very grateful to have found a sympathetic patron. The "lofty mountain" having been painted before he and Gong knew each other, Xu now wanted Gong to create a "flowing river" for him in a different format to celebrate their bond, and Gong complied with the magnificent River Village and a long inscription. Although thematically different, the "lofty mountain" and the "flowing river" are complementary in composition and tone.
Regrettably, the dedication or date on Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains was removed (some argue that this was done by Xu Henglin's descendants when they sold the painting to preserve their anonymity), and as a result we lack the most objective evidence to prove its identity as the "lofty mountain" scroll. Regardless of whether its dimensions match that of River Village, however, the pair are very close in painting style and complementary in composition. Why should we, three centuries later, not regard Dwelling In Seclusion Amid Rivers And Mountains as the "lofty mountain"?