1891年中秋 玻璃內畫「松蔭銷夏」圖鼻煙壺 周樂元畫

《辛卯仲秋寫於京師，周樂元書》款 「元」印

Hugh Moss、Victor Graham 及曾嘉寶，《A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection》，卷4，香港，2000年，編號494

Bottle: There are tiny surface scratches from use and one tiny air bubble to the right of the inscription, otherwise, workshop condition. Painting: There are some small spoon scratches visible on both sides, otherwise, in studio condition.
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The great advantage of using the inside surface of a snuff bottle for a continuous composition is evident in this landscape from late in 1891. The purpose for both artist and audience of these idealized landscapes, whether the format is a hanging scroll, handscroll, album leaf, or snuff bottle, was escapist and meditational. Multiple, flexible perspective is one of the most powerful and sophisticated tools for facilitating the entry of the viewer into the realm of the painting by breaking down the distinction between artist and audience. The continuous landscape inside a snuff bottle has the same potential for this transformation as a handscroll. By turning the bottle slowly, one has the impression of travelling through the landscape. Indeed, in this respect, the snuff-bottle format has one advantage over the handscroll. It is continuous. There is no beginning and no end, and as such it is the ideal handscroll format in Chinese art.

When such a landscape is created with the aesthetic sensibility and accomplished technique of a Zhou Leyuan, or a Ding Erzhong, one has only to overcome the obstacle of scale and the persistent, but quite mistaken belief that anything as small and functional as a snuff bottle cannot be high art, to recognise that this little gem of painting fulfils the highest aspirations of the literati tradition.

This painting includes one of the most elaborate dream residences of Zhou’s entire output. Two large pavilions are set alongside an enormous open thatched viewing-gallery built on sloping stone foundations overhanging the river beneath towering pines. If one is going to build an imaginary retreat in a realm where one is mercifully free of architects, builders, and the lawyers needed to keep them in check, one might as well build on a grand scale.