QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

The second zitan brushpot carved with landscape (lot 3060) is based on a painting by renowned court painter Fang Cong and probably carved by him. He is one of Qianlong’s favourite court painters in the late Qianlong period, with 48 of his works recorded in the Imperial painting compendium Shiqu Baoji. Although the current brushpot is reminiscent of his well-known hanging scroll Travelling in Autumn Moutains 秋山行旅圖 (fig. 3), in the Beijing Palace Museum, its sparse composition seems more inspired by Yuan master Huang Gongwang, whose style is much admired by Fang Cong. Here the craftsman juxtaposes long fluid knife cuts for outlines against short, abrupt texture (cun 皴) cuts to great effect.