18TH-EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Depicting a spectacular river landscape permeated with dramatic rock formations and jutting peaks, this impressively large panel illustrates the extraordinary workmanship achieved by lacquer craftsmen of the Qing period. Each rock, tree, and figure is finely executed, and the varying depths of the carving and the overlapping of the densely compacted landscape elements provide the illusion of depth and a rich variety of textures. Similarly rendered clouds and towering peaks can be a seen in the central panel of a polychrome lacquer table screen formerly in the Qing Court Collection, and preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Lacquer Wares of the Qing Dynasty – 46 – The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 93, no. 64. Similar clouds and towering mountains, as well as a similar depiction of elderly gentlemen admiring a painting and accompanied by young male servants, can also be seen decorating the cover of red lacquer bracket-lobed box illustrated in Many Splendors: Yuan, Ming and Qing Lacquerware from the Chao Collection, Beijing, 2010, pp. 262-3, no. 112.