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Lot Essay
The poetic inscription on the horizontal panel is followed by, Boyuan ti yu langhuan xian guan (Boyuan composed at the Langhuan Hall of Immortals), followed by one seal of the artist, Ruan shi shi (stone of Mr. Ruan), and with a second seal in the lower left corner reading, langhuan xian guan (Jade Garland Immortals Hall). The inscription on the vertical panel is followed by two seals reading shi and sheng (begotten in stone), and with two artist’s seals at the bottom left corner reading shi pi (stone mania) and Ruan shi boyuan zhen cang (treasured by Mr. Ruan Boyuan).
Ruan Yuan (1764-1849), zi Boyuan, hao Yuntai , was a well-known scholar-official and connoisseur-collector from Yizheng, Jiangsu province. His studio was called langhuan xian guan (Jade Garland Immortals Hall). Ruan Yuan passed his jinshi examination in 1789 and was appointed to the Hanlin Academy the following year. He was famous for his literary work, Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians, and was a prolific scholar, writing on a wide range of topics, including both ancient and contemporary arts. Ruan Yuan also had a long official career, rising to the rank of Grand Secretary.
Ruan Yuan had a special interest in writings found in bronze and stone. He also excelled in the art of cutting, polishing and framing marble selected for its dramatic natural markings, particularly marble from Dali, Yunnan province, to create semi-abstract imagery on panels which he called shihua (stone paintings). Ruan Yuan wrote a treatise on marble panels of this type entitled Shi hua ji (Commentary of Stone Paintings), recording a number of stone panels he had inscribed, noting their texts and sizes. The horizontal panel shown here is the first example which can be directly associated with Ruan Yuan’s published record. (Fig. 1) It is thought that the rest of his collection was likely lost when his estate in Yangzhou was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion shortly after his death.
A similar Dali marble ‘stone painting’ inscribed and signed by Ruan Yuan is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and is illustrated by D. Hart (ed.) in Museum of Stones: Ancient and Contemporary Art at the Noguchi Museum, New York, 2016, p. 113, no. 55. Another Dali marble panel, mounted as a table screen inscribed and signed by Ruan Yuan, is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and illustrated by R. Jacobsen and N. Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 210-211, no. 79.
Ruan Yuan (1764-1849), zi Boyuan, hao Yuntai , was a well-known scholar-official and connoisseur-collector from Yizheng, Jiangsu province. His studio was called langhuan xian guan (Jade Garland Immortals Hall). Ruan Yuan passed his jinshi examination in 1789 and was appointed to the Hanlin Academy the following year. He was famous for his literary work, Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians, and was a prolific scholar, writing on a wide range of topics, including both ancient and contemporary arts. Ruan Yuan also had a long official career, rising to the rank of Grand Secretary.
Ruan Yuan had a special interest in writings found in bronze and stone. He also excelled in the art of cutting, polishing and framing marble selected for its dramatic natural markings, particularly marble from Dali, Yunnan province, to create semi-abstract imagery on panels which he called shihua (stone paintings). Ruan Yuan wrote a treatise on marble panels of this type entitled Shi hua ji (Commentary of Stone Paintings), recording a number of stone panels he had inscribed, noting their texts and sizes. The horizontal panel shown here is the first example which can be directly associated with Ruan Yuan’s published record. (Fig. 1) It is thought that the rest of his collection was likely lost when his estate in Yangzhou was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion shortly after his death.
A similar Dali marble ‘stone painting’ inscribed and signed by Ruan Yuan is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and is illustrated by D. Hart (ed.) in Museum of Stones: Ancient and Contemporary Art at the Noguchi Museum, New York, 2016, p. 113, no. 55. Another Dali marble panel, mounted as a table screen inscribed and signed by Ruan Yuan, is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and illustrated by R. Jacobsen and N. Grindley in Classical Chinese Furniture, Minneapolis, 1999, pp. 210-211, no. 79.