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Lot Essay
Zhou Leyuan, the founder of the popular Beijing school of painting, was active between 1879 and 1893. Every artist of the first phase of the school owed a considerable debt to Zhou, and most began their careers by copying his style and signing his name; some even appear to have devoted most of their careers to producing copies of his work. This spectacular example comes from early in Zhou's career when he was first becoming justly famous and creating masterpieces that set new technical and artistic standards.
The subject-matter on this bottle belongs to a series of Zhou's work which features rustic scenes with willow trees on one side, and a more intimate scene on the other. Although the elements among these bottles are the same - with a wind-blown fisherman in a river landscape with willows - the compositions are quite different, as are the colorings, the forms of the repeated elements (mountains, willows, fisherman and boat) and even, at times, the style of the brushwork. Like so many other serious artists, Zhou never repeated a composition, however often he may have repeated certain themes.
On this bottle, Zhou combines several scholarly playthings that would be found in a typical studio, including an ancient vessel with mask-and-ring handles in which lingzhi are placed (symbolizing longevity), a branch of blossoming prunus (symbolizing integrity), and a Yixing teapot, all of which are partially concealed by a rock-sculpture. Set in a scholar's garden or on an elaborate stand in the scholar's studio, these natural rock formations were considered to be among the highest form of sculpture among the cultured elite from the Song dynasty onwards.
Compare several related bottles by Zhou in the Mary and George Bloch Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 4, Inside-Painted, nos. 466-68 and the numerous subsequent examples of similar design. See, also, two other comparable bottles by Zhou in the J & J Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, nos. 411 and 412; and a further example, illustrated by Che Taozhu, Jianshi biyanhu, p. 52. We know from his inscribed works that Zhou worked throughout his career in the Studio of Lotus Fragrance, at Xuannan, Beijing, an area near the Xuanwu men (Gate of Promulgation of Military Prowess), one of the old entrances to Beijing in the south-west.
The subject-matter on this bottle belongs to a series of Zhou's work which features rustic scenes with willow trees on one side, and a more intimate scene on the other. Although the elements among these bottles are the same - with a wind-blown fisherman in a river landscape with willows - the compositions are quite different, as are the colorings, the forms of the repeated elements (mountains, willows, fisherman and boat) and even, at times, the style of the brushwork. Like so many other serious artists, Zhou never repeated a composition, however often he may have repeated certain themes.
On this bottle, Zhou combines several scholarly playthings that would be found in a typical studio, including an ancient vessel with mask-and-ring handles in which lingzhi are placed (symbolizing longevity), a branch of blossoming prunus (symbolizing integrity), and a Yixing teapot, all of which are partially concealed by a rock-sculpture. Set in a scholar's garden or on an elaborate stand in the scholar's studio, these natural rock formations were considered to be among the highest form of sculpture among the cultured elite from the Song dynasty onwards.
Compare several related bottles by Zhou in the Mary and George Bloch Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 4, Inside-Painted, nos. 466-68 and the numerous subsequent examples of similar design. See, also, two other comparable bottles by Zhou in the J & J Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, nos. 411 and 412; and a further example, illustrated by Che Taozhu, Jianshi biyanhu, p. 52. We know from his inscribed works that Zhou worked throughout his career in the Studio of Lotus Fragrance, at Xuannan, Beijing, an area near the Xuanwu men (Gate of Promulgation of Military Prowess), one of the old entrances to Beijing in the south-west.