SIGNED ZHI YAN, QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1750

Zhou Hao (c. 1685 – 1773) was one of the most accomplished bamboo carvers of the Qing period, whose unique style of rigorous knife cuts transposes the spirit of landscape brush paintings onto the bamboo surface. He was also a well-known painter, especially for his landscapes inspired by Wang Meng, who favoured layered and dense brush strokes. A painting by Zhou Hao titled ‘Carrying a qin to visit a friend’ in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Highlights in Zhou Hao’s Art, Shanghai, 2016, p. 71, no. 13 (fig.1) is a very good example of his painting style. The current brush pot is carved with the same subject, and his use of ‘short hemp-fibre strokes’ on paintings corresponds closely to the short texture cuts seen on the current brush pot. It is interesting to note that the inscription on the current brush pot translates: ‘when painting, if one’s mind can forget about his hand and vice versa, then his brush stokes will be harmonious and transcendent, surpassing the mundane’. Zhou did not consider bamboo carving different from painting, and the inscriptions on his bamboo pieces often refers to ‘paintings’ and ‘brush strokes’. He did not use preparatory sketches or drafts on bamboo, preferring to work freehand directly on the surface, using the knife just like a brush. This interchange between carving and painting makes him one of the most unique artists working in bamboo, and his carving style is closest to the literati painting tradition. Although undated, the current brush pot is closely related stylistically to the example dated to 1744 in the Shanghai Museum Collection, illustrated in ibid, p. 51, no. 6 (fig.2), and probably from the same period. Compare also a very late example by Zhou Hao, carved in 1771, now in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Jiangxin yu Xiangong, Taipei, 2009, pp. 67-72, no. 13.