Lot 1140
Treasury 4, no. 596 (‘The Miniature Bare-foot Immortal’)
HK$81,250

Glass, ink, and watercolours; with a concave lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding rounded foot rim; painted on one main side with Liu Hai holding a string of cash and prancing beside his three-legged toad, the other main side inscribed with a quatrain in seven-syllable lines on Liu Hai, followed by the signature Ma Shaoxuan 馬少宣, with one seal of the artist, Shao, in negative seal script
Family of Ma Shaoxuan, Beijing, 1897–1900
Height: 4 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.48/1.18 cm
Stopper: coral; glass collar

Provenance:
Sotheby’s, London, 6 and 9 May 1986, lot 360

Published:
Treasury 4, no. 596

Exhibited:
Christie’s, London, 1999

The subject of Liu Hai prancing in this manner in front of his three-legged toad first appeared in 1897 and was repeated several times in that year and in 1898. It is one of the pattern-book images that the Ma family developed as part of a more decorative repertoire. Whether of full size or miniature like this and other known examples, it is always exactly the same image. It was probably one done by a family member, but with so little reliable evidence of the style of several of Ma’s relatives, it is impossible to know which. We believe, however, from Ma’s nature and extraordinary talents as revealed by his biography and his works, that he would probably have concentrated on the more challenging paintings while leaving to his brothers, son, and nephew the repetitive, decorative subjects that posed no artistic problems and could be reproduced by rote from existing patterns.

The Ma family painted two versions of Liu Hai, this one and another of him on a rocky bank enticing his toad from the waters below. Both made their first appearance in 1897.

The poem here reads

With bare legs and unkempt hair,
not counting the years,
Through the Ten Continents and Three Islands
he twirled as he wished.
At Penglai he has been cut off  
from the world of men
Always together with the golden toad
he rendezvoused with the immortals.

The Ten Continents and Three Islands were believed to be remote places where the immortals resided. The same poem appears on scrolls done by other artists in 1926 and 1943, but its source is not known to us; it could be by Ma Shaoxuan himself.

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