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Lot Essay
'A Divine Gift of One Hundred Deer' depicts a high mountain landscape populated by deer, Daoist emblems of beauty and longevity. Deer are the mounts of the immortals, eaters of the sacred lingzhi fungus, and scouts on the way to the sacred mountain and the stream of the elixir of life. The white stag and doe represent the Emperor and Empress in this utopian landscape.
Little is known of the painter Guo Hui, but by his style and subject matter he is clearly in the circle of the 18th century court painters. The Qing emperors used the arts to glorify the empire, and this composition, like Giuseppe Castiglione's (Lang Shining) 'One Hundred Horses' handscroll, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is both a venue to depict these wild creatures in a picturesque setting, and to celebrate a triumphant rule.
For a brief biographical note on the artist, please see Zhongguo meishujia renming cidian, Shanghai, 1981, p. 959.
Little is known of the painter Guo Hui, but by his style and subject matter he is clearly in the circle of the 18th century court painters. The Qing emperors used the arts to glorify the empire, and this composition, like Giuseppe Castiglione's (Lang Shining) 'One Hundred Horses' handscroll, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is both a venue to depict these wild creatures in a picturesque setting, and to celebrate a triumphant rule.
For a brief biographical note on the artist, please see Zhongguo meishujia renming cidian, Shanghai, 1981, p. 959.