Lot Essay
The artist Dong Bangda (1699-1774) is recorded in Zhongguo Meishu Jiaren Mingci dian, A Compelation of Chinese Artist Names, p. 1225, as a native of Fuyang, Zhejiang province, and was known to have painted landscape paintings in the style of old masters such as Dong Yuan (d. A.D. 962) and Dong Qichang (1555-1636).
The fine brushwork with its sparing use of ink and composition is reminescent of Huang Gongwang (1269-1354), one of the four Yuan dynasty master painters. This painting is in a handscroll format which allows the viewer to scan a panoramic view and to appreciate the changing scenes of the river landscape as the scroll unfolds. Compare the painting style to Huang's famous handscroll, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, dated 1350, now in the National Palace Museum collection, Taibei, part illustrated by W. Fong, Beyond Representation, fig. 183. The rounded mountains and the use of multiple dian, or dots, are deliberately executed in the style of early Chinese paintings attributed to Dong Yuan such as the hanging scroll, Wintry Groves and Layered Banks, illustrated by W. Fong, op. cit., fig. 31.
The present lot has two collectors' seal at the beginning of the painting: the first reads Xinyu Zhenchang, identified as the painter Pu Xinyu (1896-1963), a descendant of the Daoguang emperor. The second seal, Xiaochen Lian appears to be unrecorded.
Small albums of this type are produced as treasures for the miniature curios cabinets.
(US$8,000-11,000)
The fine brushwork with its sparing use of ink and composition is reminescent of Huang Gongwang (1269-1354), one of the four Yuan dynasty master painters. This painting is in a handscroll format which allows the viewer to scan a panoramic view and to appreciate the changing scenes of the river landscape as the scroll unfolds. Compare the painting style to Huang's famous handscroll, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, dated 1350, now in the National Palace Museum collection, Taibei, part illustrated by W. Fong, Beyond Representation, fig. 183. The rounded mountains and the use of multiple dian, or dots, are deliberately executed in the style of early Chinese paintings attributed to Dong Yuan such as the hanging scroll, Wintry Groves and Layered Banks, illustrated by W. Fong, op. cit., fig. 31.
The present lot has two collectors' seal at the beginning of the painting: the first reads Xinyu Zhenchang, identified as the painter Pu Xinyu (1896-1963), a descendant of the Daoguang emperor. The second seal, Xiaochen Lian appears to be unrecorded.
Small albums of this type are produced as treasures for the miniature curios cabinets.
(US$8,000-11,000)