Lot 1017
Treasury 4, no. 513 (‘Long Life and Emolument’)
HK$106,250

Glass, ink, and watercolours; with a flat lip and a flat foot separated from a flat foot rim by a concave groove; painted with a continuous landscape design with a dappled deer standing on a grassy bank and a crane perched on the trunk of an ancient pine in front of a rocky outcrop with lingzhi growing at its base and peonies behind it, the distance made up of drifting clouds and waterfalls emerging from hills, inscribed in cursive script Dingyou qinghe xie yu jingshi, Ye Zhongsan 丁酉清和寫於京師，葉仲三 (‘Painted by Ye Zhongsan at the capital in the Pure and Mild month of the year dingyou,’ with one seal of the artist, huayin (‘painting seal’), in negative seal script
Ye Zhongsan, the Apricot Grove Studio, Chongwen district, Beijing, fourth lunar month, 1897
Height: 5.75 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.78/1.72 cm
Stopper: glass; silver collar

Provenance:
B. C. Tattenhall
Robert Kleiner (1989)

Published:
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 327
Kleiner 1995, no. 403
Treasury 4, no. 513

Exhibited:
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March–June 1994
National Museum, Singapore, November 1994–February 1995
British Museum, London, June–November 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July–November 1997
Christie’s, London, 1999

Here is a typical Zhou Leyuan subject, even to the mist-enshrouded far landscape; moreover, the main subject set on high ground allowing the viewer to look down into the distant landscape, as in Sale 2, lot 66, by Zhou. It is painted in the blue palette also adopted from Zhou, but into it Ye has introduced a deer, a subject never painted by Zhou and rarely painted by Ye, although he does it with consummate skill. It is superbly done, with lovely detailing and charming personality. Given Ye’s propensity for repeating himself, it is surprising that the success of this image did not encourage him to produce it more often.

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.