A FAMILLE-ROSE 'SCHOLAR IN GARDEN' BASIN QING DYNASTY, YONGZHENG – QIANLONG PERIOD

of circular form with deep straight sides and a broad lipped rim, the well of the basin slightly concave and painted in pastel washes with an elderly figure seated on a rocky outcrop beneath leafy boughs of a tall tree and amidst a landscape of flowering shrubbery, the scholar with finely rendered facial features lifting his gaze from the open book in his hand, the cavetto skilfully painted with five goldfish swimming among seaweed, the everted mouth decorated in a free manner with a variety of flowering sprigs and floating florets alternating with butterflies and a moth with gilded wings, the exterior with five bats in flight

This exquisitely painted basin is rare for its deep form and decoration. The broad proportions and wide everted rim of this basin appears to have originated in the Kangxi reign, the vibrant painting takes full advantage of the newly developed famille-rose palette, as evident in the bold angular strokes of the robe filled with thick washes of pink, which creates a very attractive contrast to the sensitive rendering of the facial features of the elderly scholars.

Basins of this type are unusual, although one of similar form, painted on the interior with a landscape and attributed to the Qianlong reign, in the Tianjin Museum, is illustrated in Tianjin shi yishu bowuguan cang ci [Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum], Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 174; and another shallower in form, painted with the immortal Magu in a landscape, was sold in these rooms, 18th May 1988, lot 267, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26th September 1989, lot 746, and possibly the same as that sold at Christie’s London, 6th November 2012, lot 241. Compare also a meiping with Yongzheng mark and of the period, painted in a similar style with scholars in landscape, from the Wang Xin Lou collection, included in the exhibition Imperial perfection. The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 2004, cat. no. 48.

For the Kangxi prototype of this shape, see a Kangxi mark period basin painted in underglaze blue with a phoenix amongst clouds, sold in in our London rooms in 1977, twice in these rooms in 1978 and 1982, and most recently at Christie’s New York, 17th September 2008, lot 455.

This distinctive style of rendering the fish is reminiscent of that on a painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, 'Aquatic Plants and Fish', in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Wang Yaoting, Xin shijian, Lang Shining yu Qing gong xiyang feng/New Visions at the Ch’ing Court. Giuseppe Castiglione and Western-Style Trends, Catalogue of an exhibition at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2007, pl. 23.