A SET OF TWO FAMILLE-ROSE 'FIGURES AND BIRDS' PLAQUES BY WANG QI, REPUBLIC PERIOD, DATED WUCHEN YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 1928

Acquired in Hong Kong circa the 1960s, and thence by descent.

來源 

約1960年代得於香港，此後家族傳承

These two plaques were painted by Wang Qi (1884-1937) one of China’s most talented porcelain painters of the 20th century. A founding member of the Yueman hui (Full Moon Society), later known as the Zhushan Bayou (Eight Friends of Zhushan), Wang’s works encapsulate the new innovative styles pursued by porcelain artists after the fall of the Qing dynasty. A native of Xinjianxian, Jiangxi province, Wang Qi started his career at Jingdezhen at the age of seventeen creating toy figurines. His mature style can be traced back to a trip he made to Shanghai in 1916, where he visited an exhibition of paintings by the Yangzhou Baguai (Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou). Wang was particularly impressed by the works of Huang Shen (1687-1772), one of the Eight Eccentrics known for his figure paintings. His influence on Wang is clearly displayed on these plaques through the rendering of the figure’s clothing with angular broken lines, which he combines with fine brushstrokes and delicate shading to render the figures’ highly expressive features. It is this contrast between abbreviated and calligraphic brushstrokes and carefully painted details, which add volume to the figures, that characterizes Wang’s unique style.

Wang Qi often depicted Daoist or Buddhist subjects, well-known fictional characters or celebrated scholars, as on these plaques. One of these plaques depicts Wang Xizhi (303-361 AD) watching a pair of geese. One of the most celebrated calligraphers in China, this depiction references the legend that Wang acquired inspiration for his calligraphy from the graceful necks of geese. The other plaque depicts the famous poet and recluse Lin Bu (967-1028) accompanied by a crane, as he considered cranes to be ideal companions. 

Compare a plaque by Wang Qi dated by inscription to 1932 and painted with a luohan and children, included in the exhibition Brush and Clay. Chinese Porcelain of the Early 20th Century, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 20; a pair dated to the same year and also with luohan, sold at Bonhams San Francisco, 17th December 2013, lot 8353; and a set of four plaques with immortals inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to 1930, from the collection of Phynea Paroulakis, sold in these rooms, 17th-18th March 2015, lot 295.