China. Ink and watercolors on paper. Mounted as a hanging scroll with wood handles. Finely painted with a house within a fenced enclosure surrounded by pines, willows, and other trees by a river, with figures inside the house, in the garden, on a boat, and walking along a path, all below thick clouds and misty mountains.

Inscriptions: Top left, signed 'Gengyan sanren Shiguzi Wang Hui' and inscribed 'Master Huang Gongwang paints extraordinarily. The river is close and small, it appears to be thousands of miles away. He learned from the master Zhao Mengfu. His style is unique and clear. Huang Gongwang knew Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, studying under Zhao Mengfu for a year. Inspired by the beauty of his painting, on reflection of his mastery, I wrote this poem.' Two seals, 'Wang Hui zhi yin' and 'Shiguzi'.

Provenance: From an old private family collection in Zagreb, Croatia. Remnants of an old Chinese export seal on the outside of the scroll.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear, tiny losses, staining and soiling, and minor creasing.

Dimensions: Image size 123 x 31.5 cm, Size incl. frame 205 x 44 cm

Wang Hui (1632-1717) was a Chinese landscape painter, one of the Four Wangs. He and the three other Wangs dominated orthodox art in China throughout the late Ming and early Qing periods. Of the Four Wangs, Wang Hui is considered the best-known today.

Huang Gongwang (1269-1354) was a Chinese painter, poet, and writer born at the end of the Song dynasty in Changshu, Jiangsu. He was the eldest of the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty. In art he rejected the landscape conventions of his era's Academy but is now regarded as an exemplification of the literati painters, the wenrenhua ideal. Art historian James Cahill identified Huang Gongwang as the artist who “most decisively altered the course of landscape painting, creating models that would have a profound effect on landscapists of later centuries.”

Literature comparison:
For the identical poem inscribed on the first leaf of an album of landscape paintings by Wang Hui, see Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2012, lot 2759.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9 July 2020, lot 2514
Price: HKD 500,000 or approx. EUR 62,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: Wang Hui (1632-1717), Spring Garden
Expert remark: Compare the closely related manner of painting and landscape motif. Note the size (77.5 x 33.8 cm).