Louis-Léopold Boilly, Carnival Scene (Scène de carnaval), 1832, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

LONDON - In 2019, the National Gallery will stage the first-ever exhibition in the UK devoted to Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845), one of the most important artists of Revolutionary France.

At the core of Boilly: Scenes of Parisian Life will be 18 paintings from a British private collection which have never been displayed or published. Assembled by British property developer and collector Harry Hyams over the course of the last 60 years, these works from The Ramsbury Manor Foundation will introduce National Gallery visitors to an artist who was at the very heart of the Parisian art world throughout the Revolution of 1789, the Terror, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the restoration of the French monarchy.

Best known for his highly detailed, exquisitely painted genre scenes, Boilly’s artistic production was diverse and prolific: over the course of his long career he worked in oils, watercolours, chalk, ink, engraving, and lithography, frequently using one medium to imitate another and producing thousands of works of art. What best unifies this vast and varied oeuvre is Boilly’s interest in looking. Whether depicting an audience and performance in a genre scene, or letting us spy on an aristocratic interior; tricking the viewer’s eye with an illusionistic trompe-l’oeil painting, or depicting a wide-eyed sitter in a portrait – Boilly was fascinated by the art of looking, and the art of being looked at.

Born on the outskirts of Lille in 1761, Boilly settled in Paris in 1785 and spent the following six decades there. His earliest paintings were small, relatively simple compositions, making use of only a handful of elegantly dressed figures in a fashionable, contemporary interior, often including ravishing still-life elements to show off his skill in rendering reflective surfaces. Many of these paintings had romantic or mildly risqué subject matter: 'Comparing Little Feet' (1891, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation) uses a seemingly innocent competition between two young women as a means of exposing their legs and décolletages, whereas works such as 'Two Young Women Kissing' (about 1790–4, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation) are more explicitly erotic.

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Comparing Little Feet, 1891. Oil on canvas, 44.3 × 38.1 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Two Young Women Kissing, about 1790–4. Oil on canvas, 45.5 × 37.5 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

In 1789 everything changed with the French Revolution. The old power structures that had governed almost every facet of artistic life were swept away, and without them the young painter was faced with exciting new opportunities. Suddenly, Boilly’s intimate, interior views for elite, private patrons got him into hot water: denounced by a fellow artist, he was hauled before the infamous Committee of Public Safety and accused of painting works that were damaging to republican morals. Luckily, Boilly escaped imprisonment, turning instead to paintings intended for public exhibition. Previously considered a rather lowly type of art, genre paintings now had a part to play in telling the nation’s rapidly unfolding history, and for Boilly this would reach its most ambitious and sophisticated expression with the painting that rocketed him to fame: 'The Meeting of Artists in Isabey’s Studio' (1798, Musée du Louvre). In depicting 31 of the greatest luminaries of his generation – among them 18 painters, three sculptors, three architects, and two engravers – Boilly was making a grand statement about the modern French School.

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Meeting of Artists in Isabey’s Studio (Rencontre d'artistes dans l'atelier d'Isabey), 1798. Oil on canvas, 71.5 × 111 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, Department des peintures, leg Biesta-Monrival © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Meeting of Artists in Isabey’s Studio (Étude pour "Rencontre des artistes dans l'atelier d'Isabey" ), c. 1798. Black chalk enhanced with white on paper, 41.3 × 50.5 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

At the turn of the 19th century, Boilly also began producing ambitious urban vistas. In these scenes, Boilly became the first French artist to paint views of everyday life on Paris’s streets and boulevards. Boilly’s street scenes can be characterised by their attention to detail, their high degree of finish, and their rich colours. They almost always include children, yet his paintings largely debunk the charges of being simplistic or saccharine that are so often levelled against his 18th-century ‘chocolate-box’ predecessors. In the painting 'The Poor Cat' (1832, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation) a child stealthily picks a pocket while a family of beggars slumps lethargically on the pavement. 'The Barrel Game' (about 1828, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation) features a game outside a wine shop which has its share of shady goings-on in the background, with amorous embraces and a man urinating against a wall. In 'A Carnival Scene' (1832, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation) – Boilly’s late masterpiece and most ambitious street scene – costumed characters from every epoch Boilly lived through parade through the streets of Paris.

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Poor Cat (Le pauvre chat), 1832. Oil on canvas, 31.9 × 40.4 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Poor Cat (Le pauvre chat), about 1825. Ink and wash on paper, 28.2 × 35.4 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Barrel Game, about 1828. Oil on canvas, 37.8 × 46.8 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Carnival Scene ( (Scène de carnaval)), 1832. Oil on canvas, 60.3 × 106.5 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

As well as his genre paintings, portraiture was a constant throughout Boilly’s career – it is estimated he produced 5,000 small portraits in his lifetime. In the aftermath of the Revolution, Boilly recognised that the change in social structures had made space for a new kind of patron and portrait – small, affordable likenesses which he boasted he could produce in just two hours. These will be represented in the exhibition through works such as 'Portrait of the Comtesse François de Sainte-Aldegonde' (about 1800–5, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation) and 'Portrait of a Lawyer' (first quarter of the 19th century, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation).

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Portrait of the Comtesse François de Sainte-Aldegonden (Portrait de la Comtesse François de Sainte-Aldegonde), about 1800–5. Oil on canvas, 21.5 × 16.3 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Portrait of a Lawyer (Portrait d'un homme de loi), first quarter of the 19th century. Oil on canvas, 22 × 17 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Boilly was not only working in a politically revolutionary period, but he was also actively involved in turning representation – and especially the relationship between different media – on its head. It was he who first used the phrase trompe l’oeil to describe illusionistic paintings that "deceived the eye" by creating the illusion that depicted objects exist in three dimensions. In the National Gallery’s Girl at a Window although it is painted in oil on canvas, the use of monochromatic tones for the main subject, the blue border, and the ‘printed’ signature at bottom left give the illusion that we are actually looking at a print in a mount. 

Louis-Léopold Boilly, A Girl at a Window, after 1799. Oil on canvas, 55.2 x 45.7 cm. Bequeathed by Emilie Yznaga, 1945, NG5583. ©The National Gallery 2019

Dr Francesca Whitlum-Cooper is the curator of Boilly: Scenes of Parisian Life. She says: "Boilly was an exceptionally talented artist – technically brilliant, endlessly inventive and extremely modern. He seized the opportunities brought about by the French Revolution, becoming one of the first artists to earn his living on the free market and anticipating the invention of photography with his thousands of quickly executed portraits. But as well as his canniness at navigating the market and his eye for innovation, Boilly had a strong sense of humour. His wry, witty views of the characters on the streets of Paris are just as delightful and engaging today as they were 200 years ago.”

Director of the National Gallery, Dr Gabriele Finaldi, says: “From the aristocratic boudoir to the boulevards of Revolutionary Paris, Boilly's paintings reflect the tumultuous times in which he lived. Over a career that spanned seven decades his exquisite pictures pass from the world of'The Dangerous Liaisons'to that of'Les Misérables'. Interiors, portraits, genre scenes, and trompe l'oeil paintings tell the story of his passionate engagement with the most exhilarating city in the world, Paris. This is the first exhibition of Boilly's works to be held in Britain and most of them have never before been seen publicly.”

28 FEB - 19 MAY 2019

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Heart Recognition, about 1790, Oil on canvas, 46 × 56.5 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees.

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Portrait of Jean Darcet and six members of his family (Portrait de Jean Darcet et de six membres de sa famille), about 1801. Chalks on paper, 37 × 52.5 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Little Chapel (La petite chapelle), c. 1803-04. Black chalk, ink and watercolor, 32.4 × 40.3 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Urban Toll (Péage urbain), c. 1803-04. Black chalk, ink and watercolor, 31.7 × 39.8 cm, The Ramsbury Manor Foundation. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Jean-Antoine Houdon at work in his atelier, 1804. © musée des Arts décoratifs de Paris

Louis-Léopold Boilly, The Public Viewing David’s "Coronation" at the Louvre, 1810. © 2000–2019 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Louis-Léopold Boilly, Entrance to the Jardin Turc, 1812, Private Collection. Photo © courtesy the Trustees

Lot 810. A rectangular lacquer tray, Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), Japan, Meiji period, late 19th century; 14 ¾ in. (37.6 cm.) long. Estimate: US$20,000 - US$30,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Decorated in gold, silver, red, black and yellow hiramaki-e and takamaki-e against anishimeji (imitation stone) ground with millet on a tea kettle and with a grasshopper perched on the handle, signed Gyonen nanajusan okina Zeshin [Zeshin at the age of seventy-three].

The sale was led by a record for a Venetian View by Claude Monet at £27.5 Million / $36.2 Million. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Lot 805. A rare three-piece famille-rose garniture, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1723-1735). Jars 24 1/4 in., 61.6 cm. Beakers 20 1/8 in., 51.1 cm. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 USD. Lot sold 180,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's

comprising a pair of ovoid covered jars and a gu beaker vase, the jars each finely and colorfully painted in a pastel pallette with a lush setting of a peony tree with over-sized blooms intertwined with a magnolia tree issuing from rocks, with two birds one in mid-flight and the other perched on a branch and several butterflies fluttering around, set between detatched orchid sprigs and double lozenges collaring the neck and a band of cartouches enclosing butterflies and flowers reserved on a yellow diaper ground centered with a pink peony around the shoulders, and a band of lime-green ground lappets skirting the foot, the domed cover with a bud finial similarly decorated, as well as the gu vase further decorated with birds, peonies and magnolias, stands, (7)

Provenance: Collection of M.M Tournet, Paris.
Collection of Luis de Errazu, Madrid.
The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York. 

Lot 307. An outstanding huanghuali single-board recessed-leg long table with trellis panels, Late Ming-Early Qing Dynasty, 17th-18th Century; 31 1/2 by 90 3/4 by 18 1/2 in., 80 by 230.5 by 47 cm. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 USD. Lot sold 180,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's

Page from a Birha poem of separation and longing, showing Radha with her attendants in a grove. India, Rajasthan, possibly Bundi or Kotah School, 17th century. Opaque water color on paper. Gift of George P. Bickford. 1970-10-3. Courtesy Krannert Art Museum.

CHAMPAIGN, ILL.- Small, richly colored paintings created in northern India from the late 1500s to the early 1800s animate vivid stories from the great Hindu epics, passionate verses of devotional and love poetry, and noble portraits of Rajput royals. Selections from Krannert Art Museum’s collection of such paintings will be on view in the exhibition “From Hand to Hand: Painting and the Animation of History in Northern India,” opening Feb. 28. 

Small in scale and featuring rich jewel-toned colors made from ground semiprecious stones and other organic materials, paintings produced for the Rajput courts were not meant to be framed on a wall or looked at from a distance. Instead, they were meant to be held, passed from person to person and shared for intimate viewing with courtiers or given as gifts. 

Many of the paintings were commissioned by royals and created in workshops of the Rajput courts – semi-independent Hindu states in northern India that had come under the control of the Mughal empire. 

“During this time period in India, paintings became an important medium of visual culture, complementing music and poetry,” said Allyson Purpura, the curator of global African art at KAM. “Typically referred to as ‘miniatures,’ these paintings were meant to be held in the hand and passed around at what some scholars have called a picture session. Personal contact was part of the process of sharing them. 

“In addition to poetry or scenes from Hindu legends, Rajput rulers also commissioned numerous portraits of themselves,” Purpura said. “Giving your portrait to a friend or ally not only announced allegiances, it was also a very intimate gesture. Giving your likeness was giving an embodiment of yourself.” 

“The paintings on view show dramatic scenes designed to evoke certain moods in the viewer. Some were inspired by the bhakti devotional movement, in which a devotee’s loving adoration of Krishna became a metaphor for union with a transcendent god,”  Purpura said. 

“But while the mischievous Krishna is the ultimate figure in the dramas of both divine and earthly love, it is women – the heroines, their devoted attendants and Radha herself, Krishna’s supreme love – and their romantic predicaments that take center stage in many of these paintings,” she said. 

“Many of the works were mobile, as were artists themselves. Some moved between workshops connected to the courts, developing their own rich, hybrid idioms inspired by local Indian and Mughal styles,” Purpura said. 

Kakubha Ragini. India, Rajasthan, possibly Bundi School, 18th century. Opaque watercolor on paper. Gift of George P. Bickford, 1970-10-4. Courtesy Krannert Art Museum. 

Not all of the paintings in KAM’s collection were princely commissions. Some of the paintings may have been used as aids for traveling storytellers. Others were meant to be carried by pilgrims on journeys to temples in eastern India. Many of the works are illustrations from personal albums or religious manuscripts whose individual pages have long been dispersed. 

The Indian paintings in KAM’s collection primarily came from donations by two well-known collectors, Alvin O. Bellak and George P. Bickford, as well as some paintings donated by Allen Weller, former College of Fine and Applied Arts dean and the first director of the museum, and Rachel Weller. The exhibition also will include a Nepali manuscript, the “Svasthani Vrata Katha,” on loan from professor of religion Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz.  

Portrait of Bhim Singh with Counselor, India, Devghari School, ca. 1820. Opaque color on paper. Gift of Alvin O. Bellak 1991-23-9. Courtesy Krannert Art Museum.

Events at the museum related to the exhibition include a performance by members of the student organization Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth. Consulting with Purpura, the students created musical and dance compositions that relate to the paintings. They will perform the original compositions at 6:30 p.m. March 7. 

The public is invited to two gallery conversations. The first, “Darshan and Design,” featuring Yutong Shi and Samit Sinha, curatorial interns who worked on the exhibition, will be at 4 p.m. March 28. A second gallery conversation is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. April 11. Purpura will moderate a discussion that will include Birkenholtz; Rini Bhattacharya Mehta, a professor of comparative and world literature; and Dede Fairchild Ruggles, a professor and the Debra L. Mitchell chair in landscape architecture.

Abhisandhita Nayika: Radha and Krishna estranged by a quarrel, 19th century. Northern India, Himachal Pradesh, Pahari school, Kangra. Opaque color and gold leaf on paper. Gift of George P. Bickford 1970-10-5. Courtesy Krannert Art Museum.

Lot 641. A large yellow jade rhyton, Qing Dynasty, 18th-19th Century; 6 1/4 in., 15.6 cm. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. Lot sold 168,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's

Lot 639. A fine large Imperial white jade 'nine dragon' beaker vase, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795); 9 in., 22.9 cm. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. Lot sold 144,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's

Lot 505. A rare archaic bronze wine vessel and cover, fangyi, Late Shang Dynasty, 13th - 11th Century BC; Height 8 in., 20.3 cm. Estimate 150,000 — 250,000 USD. Lot sold 144,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the thin walls of the four-sided vessel cast on each side in raised relief with a central panel of a taotie animal mask with protruding eyes and centered on a raised notched flange, set between a top register containing a pair of confronting long-tailed birds, and a pair of confronting dragons skirting the foot and separated by a small open arch, all reserved on a plain ground and further divided on the corners with vertical notched flanges, the tectiform cover similarly cast with inverted masks on each side and surmounted by a knop echoing the form of the cover and cast with two small masks, the olive-green patina covered with light malachite and cuprite encrustation, one wall of the interior of the vessel cast with a single pictogram (2).

Note: The pictogram on this vessel depicts a clan sign representing a ram’s head.

Fangyi of this form and decoration belong to the Anyang period of the Shang dynasty, although the present vessel is unusual for bearing the taotie mask and bird and dragon decoration against a plain ground instead of the tightly woven background of the leiwen pattern commonly found on Shang bronzes. The decoration appears bolder in this manner emphasizing the beautiful shape of the vessel rather than the rich nature of the design. Only one other closely related example can be found illustrated in Jung Keng, ‘The Bronzes of Shang and Chou,' vol. 2, Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, Monograph Series no. 7, Beijing, 1941, pl. 594.  A larger, more robustly cast fangyi with animal masks on a plain ground was sold in our London rooms, 6th December 1983, lot 18 and is now in the Bella and P. P. Chiu Collection in Jessica Rawson, The Bella and P.P. Chiu Collection of Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1988, pp. 46-7, no. 9.

Ritual vessels of this type were used for storing wine or grain and appear to derive their shape from wooden rather than ceramic models. A fangyi of this form and design but with the leiwen background was found in Fu Hao’s tomb at Xiaocun, Anyang in Henan province and is illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, fig. 94:1. See also a fangyi in the British Museum, London, included in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Bronzes. Art and Ritual, London, 1987, fig. 8; one in the Hakutsuru Museum, Kobe, published in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol.4, Beijing, 1997, pl. 73; one in the Shanghai Museum included in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan. Qingtongqi juan, Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 0144; and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, pl. 78.

Compare also a fangyi, from the collection of Gladys Lloyd Robinson and included in the exhibition Ancient Ritual Bronzes of China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1976, cat.no. 17, sold in these rooms, 23rd October 1976, lot 118; and another, from the Mottahedeh Collection, also sold in these rooms, 4th November 1978, lot 318.

See a Shang zhi decorated with the taotie design against plain ground, in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated in Bagley, op.cit., fig. 49.5; and a zun also with taotie decoration on plain ground in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ibid., pl. 50.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, including Property from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 19-20 march 2007

Lot 531. A fine and rare archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, gu, Shang Dynasty, Erligang Period (c. 1510 – c. 1460 BC); 6 7/8 in., 17.5 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Lot sold 144,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the columnar body supported on a tall splayed foot flaring to a wide trumpet mouth, encircled around the mid-section with three raised filets above a narrow band enclosing two taotie masks, each of the faces cast in broad relief with large bosses for eyes and hooked scroll bodies centered by low flanges, all raised on a hollowed foot, pierced with a broad openwork band of enlarged leiwen scrolls, above a further register of taotie masks, the surface covered with extensive malachite encrustation.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, including Property from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 19-20 march 2007

Lot 308. A rare ornately carved huanghuali horseshoe-back armchair, 17th-18th Century; 40 1/2 by 24 1/2 by 19 in., 102.8 by 62.2 by 48.2 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 40,000 USD. Lot sold 132,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the five-member crestrail terminating in rounded hand-grips, set on rounded straight backposts and 'goose-neck' front posts continuing through the seat frame to the straight legs of circular section secured by lobed and cusped aprons on all sides, secured by equal-height foot-stretchers on three sides, the rounded seat-frame superbly carved along all four sides, with a beaded upper edge, pair of confronting qilong with single-horned feline heads and bifurcated tails, each tugging at a central lingzhi spray with their mouths, the three other sides with vegetal scrolls and grass sprays, with mock-metal cusped strapwork molding at the corners.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, including Property from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 19-20 march 2007

LONDON.- The British Museum’s new Asahi Shimbun display will explore the relationship between food, power and control through a focussed selection of objects. More food is being produced than ever before, but hunger remains one of the biggest threats to society today – in 2017, the United Nations estimated that around one in nine people around the world are undernourished. The Asahi Shimbun Displays Feeding history: the politics of food will place ancient objects alongside a contemporary sculpture to explore the issues surrounding the production and control of food resources throughout human history. 

At the centre of this display is a poignant sculpture Anti Social Wild West Weaving, evoking the harsh conditions faced by North Americans in their attempt to harvest traditional foods on their homelands. It depicts the barbed-wire fences that settlers used to claim the North American grasslands for cattle grazing and farming. Yet these fences simultaneously restricted Native Americans from accessing their ancestral land, and scraps of fabric caught between the wires capture the difficult moment of crawling through the wires. Pat Courtney Gold is a member of the Wasco tribe, and her emotive work adapts a distinctive twining technique used to create the Sally Bag, a traditional basket unique to Wasco people and used for collecting food. 

 Pat Courtney Gold (Native North American; Female; 1939; active), Anti Social Wild West Weaving, circa 2000. Sculpture representing range land fencing; made from twined, two strand antique steel wire incorporating numerous four point barbs. Two scraps of printed calico are attached. © the Trustees of the British Museum.

This sculpture will be juxtaposed with a 1952 American educational film that also functions as cowboy propaganda. The film tells the perspective of new settlers in Midwest America, who proudly announce that by using barbed-wire fences, the prairies have been transformed into ‘open-air factories.’ Together these works draw attention to an age old conflict between nomads, farmers and herders, who use natural resources for food in different ways. It is a conflict that continues today across the world in places like Nigeria, Kenya and Brazil. 

This display will also include four ancient objects, tracing the modern issue of hunger back to the beginning of human farming for food. An ancient Egyptian plough dating to 1550 – 1069 BC bears traces of a bronze blade that was used to churn up fertile soil brought about by the river Nile’s annual flood. Predictable and reliable crops fuelled population growth as people began to settle and farm, and villages grew into towns and cities. However, farming also led to the ownership of land as well as the emergence of a hierarchal society.  

Wooden plough handle bearing traces of the bronze blade, Egypt, New Kingdom (1550 – 1069 BC). Wood, bronze. © the Trustees of the British Museum.

A butcher shop model found in an ancient Egyptian tomb for the deceased to take with them into the afterlife will also be on display, representing the other main sector of agriculture – raising livestock. Showing two oxen being slaughtered as a meat offering, this object reflects the ways in which animal domestication was closely linked to power structures in historic societies. Breeding and maintaining livestock was an expensive venture, and so the frequent consumption of meat – along with its slaughter for the afterlife - was exclusive to the wealthy elite in ancient Egypt. 

Trade and the exchange of food resources and technologies have been crucial in the history of food consumption; it is predicted that over 50% of the world’s population could rely on food imports by 2050. Two vessels both adorned with grapevines will be on display presenting a fascinating example of food, and culture, being traded. West Asia was one of the first places to cultivate grapes, and a silver Iranian vessel depicts a harvesting scene derived from the Greek myth of Dionysus, the god of wine. Alongside this is a vessel from China, where grapes were introduced via trade routes known as the Silk Roads. Today China produces more grapes than any other country. A graphic of the famous ‘full English’ breakfast reminds us how our everyday consumption of food is enriched and reliant upon trade from across the world.  

Gilded silver vase with grape harvesting scene. Possibly from Mazanderan, Iran, AD 500 – 700. Gilded silver© the Trustees of the British Museum. 

Porcelain serving dish with a bracketed rim and underglaze blue decoration of three bunches of grapes. Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424). Porcelain, 41 x 7 cm. Bequeathed by Mrs Walter Sedgwick, 1968,0422.270 © the Trustees of the British Museum. 

In a world in which hunger remains a prevalent problem, this display uses objects to allow us to consider how closely this worldwide concern is linked to non-technical issues but those related to power, politics and economics. The Asahi Shimbun Displays Feeding History: the politics of food connects the historical development of agriculture with issues surrounding the distribution and management of food, a problem that continues to affect so many people today. 

Lot 799. An unusual and large underglaze-red and blue vase, Qing Dynasty, 18th century; 20 in., 50.7 cm. Estimate 80,000 — 100,000 USD. Lot sold 132,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

robustly potted of hexagonal baluster form with the broad rounded shoulders set with an upright neck tapering to a flat foot, each side finely painted in pencilled brushstrokes with a full-length scene alternating with panels of Daoist figures and 'Hundred Deer', all enclosed by faux-bamboo borders and with subtle details picked-out in underglaze red.

Lot 795. A famille-verteyen-yen vase, Kangxi period, circa 1700; 29 3/4 in., 75.6 cm. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD. Lot sold 120,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of tall baluster form with ovoid body tapering to a flared foot and set with an elongated neck with a trumpet mouth, vibrantly painted in famille-verte and famille-jaune enamels with magpies perched on and fluttering about blossoming prunus branches, with bamboo stalks and small flowers springing from grass and two gardenia blossoms and scattered pine needles at the base of the craggy prunus trunk next to a group of large rocks, the band separating the body from the neck painted with a yellow ground reserving hydrangeas on a leafy meandering scroll, all reserved on a pale green ground.

Provenance: Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York.
A South American Private Collection. 
Chinese Porcelain Company, New York. 
Acquired by the present owner in 2000.  

Lot 763. A fine and large blue and white rouleau vase, Transitional Period-Shunzhi period (1644-1661); 18 in., 45.7 cm. Estimate 90,000 - 120,000 USD. Lot sold 96,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

heavily potted of cylindrical form with sides rising to a tapered neck, the body finely painted in washes of cobalt with a cowherd in his field tending his two oxen kneeling before a king standing beneath a parasol, the attendants holding fans and banners stand on the side by a chariot, all set between an incised band of flowers with a painted plantain leaf collar around the neck and a further incised wave band around the foot.

Lot 404. A rare painted 'jizhou' vase, meiping, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279); 7 1/4 in., 18.5 cm. Estimate 70,000 - 90,000 USD. Lot sold 96,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

finely potted of ovoid form, exquisitely painted in brown slip against a white ground with two large barbed foliate medallions enclosing a hexagonal diaper pattern on the interior, reserved on a dense ground of wave scrolls of various sizes, above a thin band of pendent lappets and keyfret around the foot, all set below a band of further scrolls around a collar at the shoulders and a keyfret band around the low neck with a rolled lip.

Carlo MARATTA (1625-1713), Josué arrêtant le soleil, huile sur toile, collection Motais de Narbonne. © Orléans, Musée des Beaux-Arts/Christophe Camus

TOULOUSE - Dans la lignée des expositions consacrées aux collections privées, c’est avec un grand bonheur que la Fondation Bemberg, après le Musée des Beaux -Arts d’Orléans, présentera du 22 février au 2 juin 2019, celle, tout à fait exceptionnelle, d’Héléna et Guy Motais de Narbonne. L’étape toulousaine sera par ailleurs l’occasion de découvrir le dernier tableau acquis en novembre dernier par les collectionneurs. 

Datés entre le XVIIe et le XVIIIe siècles, soixante-dix-neuf peintures et deux dessins de maîtres français et italiens de renom - tels que Charles Le Brun, François Boucher côté français ou Francesco Cairo et Donato Creti côté italien- illustreront tant dans les sujets religieux que profanes les courants du caravagisme et du classicisme par le prisme de la relation intime entre l’œuvre et le collectionneur.

Initiées dans les années 80, les premières acquisitions d’Héléna et Guy Motais de Narbonne n’ambitionnent pas de devenir une collection et pourtant au fil des années c’est tout un pan de l’histoire de l’art qui se constitue. Ce couple d’érudits marque son attirance pour des œuvres où l’histoire et l’humain sont prépondérants. Chacune des œuvres, marquée par le rapport violence/douceur, ombre/lumière, donne toute sa place à la créativité de l’artiste.  

Le visiteur comprendra aisément leur choix guidé par l’émotion plus que la raison. Tout comme Georges Bemberg, Héléna et Guy Motais de Narbonne ne conçoivent l’art que dans le partage et cette volonté se traduit non seulement par leurs proches relations avec des historiens de l’art mais aussi avec le public. En véritables mécènes, ils ont déjà fait don d’œuvres à différents musées. Afin de mettre en valeur la qualité de cette exposition, placée sous le parrainage de Pierre Rosenberg membre de l’Académie française et grand connaisseur de cette collection et le commissariat d’Olivia Voisin, directrice du Musée d’Orléans, la Fondation Bemberg a confié la scénographie à Nathalie Crinière.

Ainsi, La Fondation Bemberg, sous la présidence d’Alfred Pacquement, entend proposer un fabuleux voyage au cœur de l’histoire de l’art où chaque œuvre raconte une histoire.

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces Asian Art Week, a series of auctions, viewings, and events, from March 14-26. This season presents nine auctions featuring over 1,000 objects from all epochs and categories of Asian art spanning Chinese archaic bronzes through Japanese and Korean art to contemporary Indian painting. The week is headlined by the landmark collection of Florence and Herbert Irving, the namesakes of the Asian Art Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and celebrated philanthropists of New York. The sales are titled Lacquer • Jade • Bronze • Ink: The Irving Collection, in celebration of the materials the Irvings spent their lives studying and collecting. The week also welcomes the return of Japanese and Korean Art (March 19) to the schedule alongside the category sales for Fine Chinese Paintings (March 19), Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art (March 20), South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art (March 20), Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (March 22), as well as a single-owner sale Power and Prestige: Important Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from a Distinguished European Collection (March 22). All works will be presented in a public exhibition from March 14-20 at Christie’s New York. Additionally, on view will be a non-selling exhibition of Chinese painting and calligraphy from the Shuishi Xuan Collection (March 14-22), titled Zhu Qizhan (1892-1996): Following My Own Truth. 

Lacquer • Jade • Bronze • Ink: The Irving Collection features over 400 treasured objects and paintings which the renowned collectors lived with in their New York City apartment, including gilt bronzes, jades, lacquers, ceramics and paintings from across Asia, as well as European decorative arts. The collection will be sold across an Evening Sale (March 20) and a Day Sale (March 21), with a complementary online auction Contemporary Clay: Yixing Pottery from the Irving Collection (March 19 to 26). Collection highlights include an extremely rare gilt-bronze figure of a multi-armed Guanyin ($4,000,000-6,000,000); an important Imperially inscribed greenish-white jade ‘Twin Fish’ washer ($1,000,000-1,500,000); lacquer pieces by Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) including a tray of autumn grasses and moon ($60,000-80,000); and Lithe Like A Crane, Leisurely Like A Seagull, by Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) ($800,000-1,200,000). 

Highlights from the Fine Chinese Paintings sale (March 19) include a long handscroll of Fourteen Poems on Planting Bamboo ($800,000-1,200,000) by the scholar-official Li Dongyang (1447-1516) and Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Splashed Ink Landscape ($200,000-300,000). Japanese and Korean Art (March 19) returns to Asian Art Week with an impressive sale featuring a strong selection of Japanese woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), including the “Great Wave” ($200,000-300,000) and “Red Fuji” ($90,000-100,000). Featured Korean works include a gilt wood sculpture of a seated Bodhisattva ($60,000-80,000) from Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) and a slip-inlaid celadon stoneware maebyong ($300,000-400,000) from the Goryeo dynasty. 

The South Asian ModerN + Contemporary sale (March 20) features paintings by the seminal Progressive Artists’ Group and their associates, as well as important works by other pioneers of modern South Asian art. Highlights include Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011), Untitled (Horses) ($700,000-900,000) and Akbar Padamsee (B. 1928), Jeune femme aux cheveux noirs, la tête inclinée ($300,000-500,000). The sale of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art is led by a rare black ground painting of Mahakala Panjarnata, Tibet, 18th century ($250,000-350,000) and a curated selection of Himalayan bronzes and Indian paintings from the Estate of Baroness Eva Bessenyey.  

This season’s sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (March 22) features rare masterpiece objects, including an exceptional 'numbered' Jun jardinière ($2,500,000-3,500,000); a magnificent Xuande ‘Fruit Spray’ bowl ($2,000,000-3,000,000); a rare Northern Qi gilded grey stone figure of Buddha ($1,200,000-1,800,000), and a magnificent and very rare huanghuali painting table, jiatousun hua’an, 17th century ($800,000-1,200,000).  

The Shao Fangding ($1,000,000-1,500,000) is a highlight of the dedicated single-owner sale of Chinese archaic bronzes, Power and Prestige (March 22).  

ASIAN ART WEEK | LIVE AUCTION OVERVIEW 

Fine Chinese Paintings 
19 March | 10am | New York 
Christie’s sale of Fine Chinese Paintings features over 90 lots of landscapes, calligraphy, figures and floral compositions across classical, modern and contemporary ink paintings from the Ming dynasty to present day. Leading the sale is a long handscroll of Fourteen Poems on Planting Bamboo ($800,000-1,200,000) by the scholar-official Li Dongyang (1447-1516). Additional highlights include Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Splashed Ink Landscape ($200,000-300,000); Wen Shu (1595-1634), Flowers and Butterflies ($50,000-100,000); and Lu Yanshao (1909-1993), Poetic Images of the Tang Dynasty ($60,000-100,000). Additionally, on view will be a non-selling exhibition of painting and calligraphy from the Shuishi Xuan Collection (March 14-22), titled Zhu Qizhan (1892-1996): Following My Own Truth. 

Lot 10. Li Dongyang (1447-1516), Fourteen Poems on Planting Bamboo. Inscribed and signed, with three seals of the artist. Dated eighth day, second month, bingzi year of the Zhengde reign (1516) Eighteen collectors’ seals. Colophons by Hong Chu (1605-1672) with two seals. Colophons by Weng Fanggang (1733-1818) with three seals. Inscribed on the mounting by Weng Fanggang (1733-1818) with one seal. Handscroll, ink on paper, 10 3/4 x 511 x 3/4 in. (27.5 x 1300 cm). Estimate USD 800,000 - USD 1,200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Provenance: From the collection of Wang Nan-p’ing (1924-1985).

Literature: An Qi, compiled by Wu Chongyao and Tan Ying, Moyuan huiguan lu, in Yueyatang congshu (Yueyatang Collectanea), 1852, vol. 2. 
Yale University Art Gallery, The Jade Studio: Masterpieces of Ming and Qing Painting and Calligraphy from the Wong Nan-p’ing Collection, New Haven, 1994, pp. 81-85, pl. 7. 
Zhu Jiajin, “Li Xiya Zishushi Juan Shou Zhuanji”, Shoucang Jia, January 2000, pp. 39-43.

Exhibited: The Jade Studio: Masterpieces of Ming and Qing Painting and Calligraphy from the Wong Nan-p’ing Collection. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, April 9, 1993-July 31, 1994; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, September 10-November 19, 1994; Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, December 16, 1994-February 25, 1995; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, April 9-June 18, 1995.

Note: Li Dongyang, whose sobriquet was Binzhi and style name Xiya, was awarded the jinshi degree in 1464 of the Tianshun era. He served in the court for nearly fifty years and was regarded as a virtuous and wise prime minister. As a child, he displayed special a talent in calligraphy. He initially learned calligraphy by emulating the great master Yan Zhenqing (709-785). While he firmly grasped the essence of Yan’s hand, he also developed a style of his own and excelled in large cursive and seal scripts. His contemporaries praised his work as “unparalleled.” Furthermore, he was also a master in authentication and connoisseurship of paintings. No one else in the middle Ming dynasty succeeded in becoming as accomplished in so many fields as he did. 
Measuring ten meters in length, Poems on Planting Bamboo consists of fourteen poems and essays written in standard, running, cursive, and seal scripts. Li Dongyang completed it in 1516 for his nephew by marriage Zhang Ruji. Both the artist and the recipient were very fond of bamboo and often planted them together. 
The provenance of this work can be traced back to the late Ming so that its history spans nearly four hundred years and includes many important collectors virtually without interruption. Among the earliest are the collector seals of the famed Qing dynasty collector An Qi (1683-?). One of his seals appears on each of the six paper seams and the handscroll was recorded in An Qi’s treatise on paintings, Moyuan huiguan. It is particularly rare for such a long handscroll to be well preserved for over five hundred years without suffering damage or cutting, with only four characters in the frontispiece and a poem of Weng Luxu missing. The main reason for its present excellent condition is that most of the time this work was in the careful possession of experienced connoisseurs: from Weng Fanggang (1733-1818) to Ye Zhishen (1779-1863), as well as his son Ye Mingfeng (1811-1858). All of them were erudite literati interested in antiques and skilled in calligraphy. The Ye family had a strong relationship with Weng Fanggang and a great number of Weng’s treasures went into their collection. This handscroll was later owned by the Qing imperial family member and court official Aixin Jueluo Bao Xi (1871-1942) and by the great 20-century painter Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), whose seals can be found on the work. Zhang Daqian further inscribed his response, calling this “the most divine work as it contains authentic poems and calligraphy by Li Dongyang.” His admiration for and attachment to this handscroll is evident as one of his seals reads “whichever direction I go, there is only taking this piece with me and no possibility of separation.” Only a truly important work of art could have compelled a great master such as Zhang Daqian to express such a strong sentiment.

 Lot 66. Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Splashed Ink Landscape. Inscribed and signed, with one seal of the artist. Dated gengxu year (1970). Entitled by the artist on the reverse. Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and color on Japanese gold board, 23 5/8 x 17 ¾ in. (58.4 x 43.2 cm). Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000.  © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Note: This painting was acquired by the owner’s family in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Their relationship with the artist began when Zhang Daqian and the present owner’s grandfather became personal friends.

In the 1950s, Zhang began to move beyond traditional Chinese landscapes, experimenting with the splashed-ink technique that can be traced back more than a millennium to the Tang dynasty-era artist Wang Qia and Gu Kuang. His time abroad exposed him to a much wider range of artistic styles that than were not available in China, and the experiences of new cultures and geographies no doubt became a great source of inspiration, influencing his free and expressive splashed ink style. In the early 1960s, he further built on this technique and began adding splashes of color to his works. Though he looked towards the past and consciously engaged with China’s artistic traditions, he also broke away from it. Zhang once wrote, “My way of painting mountains amidst clouds is different from that of Mi Fu, Mi Youren, Gao Kegong, or Fang Congyi. I forge my own path.”
At once both rooted in tradition and modern in its abstraction, Mountain Living in Autumn is composed of both simple silhouettes of houses minimally outlined with simple brushstrokes, as well as fluid and amorphous forms built up by swathes of ink splashes of rich vegetation. Composed of vibrant washes of seafoam green and rich azure, the painting is further dotted with crimson details and highlighted by pale mist and clouds against the luminous gold paper.

Painted in 1970, Mountain Living in Autumn stands as a culmination of his astonishing career. His years of dedication and training led to his splashed ink technique in which he depicts magnificent landscapes of extraordinary grace and grandeur, by employing the controlled and uncontrollable distribution and absorption of ink on his canvases, a visual effect which has since become iconic, cementing his status as one of the most important Chinese artists of all time.

 Lot 15. Wen Shu (1595-1634), Flowers and Butterflies. Inscribed and signed, with two seals of the artist. Eight collectors’ seals, including three of Emperor Qianlong (1711- 1799), one of Zhang Ruo’ai (1713-1746), one of Zhang Keyuan (late Qing dynasty), and one of Ceng Yu (1759-1830). Dated summer, renshen year (1632). Scroll, mounted for framing, ink and color on paper, 34 x 17 in. (86.4 x 43.2 cm.). Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 100,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Lot 20. Lu Yanshao (1909-1993), Poetic Images of the Tang Dynasty. Each leaf inscribed and signed, with a total of twenty-one seals of the artist. Album of eight double leaves, ink and color on paper. Each leaf measures 8 1/4 x 11 in. (21 x 28 cm). Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 100,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

Japanese and Korean Art 
19 March | 10am | New York 
Christie’s sale of Japanese Art and Korean Art features 161 lots of classical, modern, and contemporary works. Highlighting the Japanese section is a superb offering of prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), including the “Great Wave” ($200,000-300,000) and “Red Fuji” ($90,000-100,000). Other Japanese highlights include a pair of screens by Unkoku Toeki (1591-1644), Horses in a Mountain Meadow ($100,000-200,000) and a silver kettle wrapped in iron ($100,000-150,000) by Yamada Sobi (1871-1916). Featured Korean works include a gilt wood sculpture of a seated Bodhisattva ($60,000-80,000) from Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) and a slip-inlaid celadon stoneware maebyong ($300,000-400,000) from the Goryeo dynasty. 

Lot 246. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Kanagawa oki nami ura (Under the well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa) [“Great Wave”]. Woodblock print, signed Hokusai aratame Iitsu hitsu (drawn by Iitsu, changed from Hokusai), from the series Fugaku sanjurokkei (Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji), published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo), 10 1/8 x 15 in. (25.7 x 38.1 cm). Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

Provenance: Drs. Seymour and Sylvia Fried, Englewood.

Note: In the Well of the Wave off Kanagawa has been making waves since it was introduced to Europe in the mid-nineteenth century––a glorious history that needs no introduction here. Exhibitions devoted to Hokusai attract record-breaking crowds on the strength of this one image among the thousands he produced. See also, “Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave,” series 3, episode 6 of “Private Life of a Masterpiece,” broadcast by the BBC in March 2009 and a thorough introduction to this print by a team of scholars; Hokusai is the sole non-European (Whistler counting as British) artist in the company of da Vinci, Picasso, Goya etc.

Lot 235. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Gaifu kaisei (Fine wind, clear weather) [“Red Fuji”]. Woodblock print, from the series Fugaku sanjurokkei (Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji), signed Hokusai aratame Iitsu hitsu (drawn by Iitsu, changed from Hokusai), published by Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo), 14 7/8 x 10 in. (37.8 x 25.4 cm.. Estimate USD 90,000 - USD 120,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

Lot 294. Unkoku Toeki (1591-1644), Horses in a Mountain Meadow. Sealed Unkoku and Toeki. Pair of six-panel screens; ink, color and gold leaf on paper, 58 ¾ x 138 ¼ in. (149.2 x 351.2 cm). Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 200,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

Provenance: Marquis Maeda Toshinari (1885–1942), Tokyo
Collins & Moffatt, Seattle
Marian Willard Johnson (1904–1985), New York.

Literature: “Works of Old Masters,” Bijutsu Gaho (November 20, 1904), Plate 2.
Shoga Taikan (Compilation of calligraphy and painting). Tokyo: Shoga Taikan Kankokai, 1917, Plate 8 and pp. 111–12
Japanese 16th–18th Century Screens; 12th–14th Century Paintings, New York: Willard Gallery, 1960, cat. no. 2
Yamamoto Hideo, “Unkoku Togan hitsu Gunmazu byobu” (Screens depicting a herd of horses by Unkoku Togan), Kokka 1141 (1990), fig. 7, p. 25.
Unkoku Toeki / Unkoku Toeki and followers of Sesshu in the first half of the 17th century, edited by Watada Minoru. Yamaguchi City: Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2001, fig. 7, p. 105 [listed as Maeda Collection] 

Note: Until now, the location of these screens has been a mystery. As recently as 2001, Japanese scholars listed the owner as Maeda Collection. In 1904, and again in 1917, when the screens were first published as rare masterpieces worthy of attention, they were in the collection of a famous, old daimyo family in Tokyo, Marquis Maeda Toshinari (1885–1942). Maeda commanded Japanese forces in Borneo during World War II and died there in a plane crash.
At some point, presumably after Maeda’s death, works from the Maeda Collection—probably including this pair of screens—were acquired by Mayuyama Jun’kichi (1913–1999), the preeminent Tokyo dealer in Asian art during the second half of the twentieth century. He documented his successful postwar interaction with foreign clients when he published his Japanese Art in the West in 1966. 
Marian Willard Johnson (1904–1985), who opened her first gallery in New York in the 1930s, had no background in things Japanese, but she had featured Northwest Coast artists such as Mark Tobey and Morris Graves who were inspired by Japanese art and philosophy. In 1952, she mounted the first exhibition of prints by Munakata held outside Japan, including loans from Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, at Willard Gallery, 23 West 56th Street. Yanagi Soetsu and William S. Lieberman contributed the text for the brochure. In 1955, 1956 and 1960, she mounted sale exhibitions at her gallery of Japanese paintings from the collection of Seattle dealers Collins & Moffat, who were well acquainted with Morris Graves. Willard was working with her friend, the handsome, Harvard-educated novelist and art dealer Bertrand (“Bertie”) Collins (1893–1964), and his younger partner, David Moffat. Collins was the wealthy son of a former mayor of Seattle. Both Moffatt and Collins had been to Japan many times in the early 1950s on buying trips.
In January 1957, Collins wrote to Willard asking whether she would take this pair of horse screens on consignment. He knew they were something special:
I don’t know if [Moffat] told you of a pair of screens—Horses against a gold background—which we are acquiring. They were painted for the palace of one of the Tokugawa shoguns and [are] said to be magnificent. . . .
I was wondering if, when they arrive, they appear to be. . . outstanding, you would be willing for us to send them on to you; to hold in reserve for certain clients you might have in mind. There is no sale for anything like that out here. As a matter o’ fact, we don’t even attempt to sell anything here in Seattle. With that snobbery peculiar to the provinces, people will refuse to pay $1,000 here for something they will pay, and gladly, $1,750 in New York. 
Willard included the screens, without attribution (the seals were unread at that time), in her December 1960 exhibition with an estimate of $4,500 and Maeda Collection provenance. In 1975, she had the screens appraised by the New York dealer Roland Koscherak. They never sold and remained in her personal collection, resurfacing only now, nearly sixty years later.
In a September 1960 letter to Willard, Collins explains that he acquired many screens—including a few intended for the December exhibition—in Tokyo directly from Mayuyama, who was disposing of some of the Maeda Collection that had accumulated in his shop. Collins describes in some detail the crafty method Mayuyama had concocted for exporting great works of art in such a way as to evade scrutiny by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkacho). 
We know that Mayuyama had a long-standing relationship with Richard E. Fuller (1897–1976), a collector of Asian art and philanthropist who founded the Seattle Art Museum, and served as its president and unofficial director in the early days, and with the museum’s curator of Asian art in the late 1940s, Sherman E. Lee (1918–2008). Mayuyama also sold directly to Fay Frederick (1891–1959), widow of Donald E. Frederick, who founded the Seattle-based department store Frederick and Nelson’s. Among the treasures she acquired from Mayuyama is the famous Deer Scroll by Hon’ami Koetsu and Tawaraya Sotatsu, now the centerpiece of the museum’s Asian collection (1951.127). In 1960, Frederick’s daughter, Fay Padelford, sold some of her mother’s screens, originally acquired from Collins & Moffat, through Willard Gallery. 
The screens offered here invoke a Chinese-style landscape teeming with wild horses against a gold-leaf ground. They were painted by Toeki, the second son of Unkoku Togan (1547–1618), heir to the artistic legacy and patrons of Sesshû Toyo (1420–?1506) in western Japan. Regional schools like the Unkoku workshop were patronized by powerful local daimyo—in this instance, the Mori in Suo and Hagi—who brought Kyoto-trained artists to their strongholds in the provinces to underscore their cultural and military authority. The Unkoku style was characterized by a strong, tensile ink line, a composition based on a balance of wash and large unpainted areas, and a shallow spatial representation. Horses were prized possessions of the feudal aristocracy and Togan painted several screens of horses in a landscape destined for the inner chambers of the castle of a powerful daimyo. One pair from about 1600, with a herd of mysteriously pale, almost ethereal wild horses, is in the collection of the Kyoto National Museum. 
Toeki is here following in his father’s footsteps but we may well say that he surpassed his father. There are two other horse screens by Toeki, one in the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art and another—current location unknown—formerly in the Baron Takahashi Collection. His horses are usually in the so-called hakubyo or “white-line-style,” like those of Togan, but here he uses more color. The horses seem posed to record every possible attitude and angle from which they might be viewed, from the bony sleeping nag in the fifth panel from the right on the right screen to the graceful pair galloping in tandem on the left screen.
Of course, the landscape features are close in style to Togan, as might be expected in an artist’s early work. The square seal on the screen here is one Toeki used only early in his career. It appears, for example, on his painting of Daruma in Chion-ji, Kyoto, with an inscription by a monk who died in 1617. What sets these screens apart is the use of a gold leaf ground, which would not appear in the work of Togan and is used in only one other pair of screens by Toeki. They are a very important example of Toeki’s early work, strongly influenced by both Togan and the spirit of late Momoyama painting. 
Last but not least, in his description of the Toeki screens in the Willard catalogue, Bertrand Collins astutely notes that the drawing of the horses is reminiscent of Chinese Tang-dynasty models. Japanese scholars such as Yamamoto Hideo have noted a Chinese connection when discussing Unkoku Togan’s horse screens. In particular, we should call attention to works such as the Yuan-dynasty painting of a bony old nag in a handscroll by Gong Kai (circa 1304) in the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts (see fig. 1)

Lot 339. A silver kettle wrapped in iron, Meiji period (late 19th century), sealed Sobi (Yamada Sobi; 1871-1916): 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) wide. Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 150,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

The compressed globular form with a spout, the body and lid finely hammered and wrapped in iron, applied with hammered iron handle, the lid set with a round finial partially applied with gold and silver, signature on body. With wood box titled yuto (kettle) on top, signed Sobi zo and sealed Yamada Sobi on the reverse side.

Lot 363. A gilt wood sculpture of a seated Bodhisattva, Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), probably second half 17th century; 31 ½ in. (80 cm.) high. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 80,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

The gilt sculpture of a bodhisattva seated on a low pedestal, the figure holding its hands in a ritual gesture, the hair arranged in a high top knot painted in black, some traces of pigments on the lips, a circular hole on base revealing the interior of hollow body.

Provenance: Private collection, Japan

Lot 351. A slip-inlaid celadon stoneware maebyong, Goryeo dynasty, 12th century; 12 ½ in. (31.8 cm.) high. Estimate USD 300,000 - USD 400,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019. 

The elegant s-shaped profile with round shoulders and tapering body, inlaid in white and iron slip with three cranes flying amongst white-slip clouds, the mouth and foot rims designed with a narrow band of fretwork, finished with a glossy greenish glaze, four spur marks on base. With lacquered storage box.

Literature: Rhee Byung-chang, Korai toji / Koryo Ceramics, in Kankoku bijutsu shusen / Masterpieces of Korean Art (Tokyo: privately published, 1978), no. 167.
Korai meipin ten / Exhibition of Mei-ping Vase, Koryo Dynasty, Korea, exh. cat. (Osaka: Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 1985), no. 8.

Exhibited: The Nezu Museum, Tokyo (Date unknown)
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, "Exhibition of Mei-ping Vase, Koryo Dynasty, Korea," 1985.4.23-8.31.

South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art 
20 March | 10am | New York 
Christie’s sale of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art presents over 80 lots by members of the seminal Progressive Artists’ Group and their associates, as well as important works by other pioneers of modern South Asian art such as Hemendranath Mazumdar, Allah Bux and M.V. Dhurandhar. Leading the sale is Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011), Untitled (Horses) ($700,000-900,000). Also featured is an impressive selection by celebrated living artists including Akbar Padamsee (B. 1928), Jeune femme aux cheveux noirs, la tête inclinée ($300,000-500,000); Arpita Singh (B. 1937), Ashvamedha ($250,000-350,000); and Rameshwar Broota (B. 1941), The Other Space ($200,000-300,000). The auction additionally includes pieces by Francis Newton Souza, Syed Haider Raza, and Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, along with a section of contemporary works by artists such as Ranjani Shettar, Nalini Malani, Zarina, Atul Dodiya and Muhanned Cader, among others. Featuring a range of works by top artists in the field, this season’s sale offers emerging and established collectors unique buying opportunities across the category. 

Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art 
20 March | 2pm | New York 
Christie’s sale of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art will present 131 carefully chosen lots featuring an array of fine sculptures and paintings from India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. The sale is led by a rare black ground painting of Mahakala Panjarnata, Tibet, 18th century ($250,000-350,000); and a fine South Indian bronze figure of Chandikeshvara from the Chola period ($200,000-300,000). Other highlights include a curated selection of fresh-to-market Himalayan bronzes and Indian paintings from the Estate of Baroness Eva Bessenyey; a fine group of Indian and Southeast Asian stone and bronze sculpture; Indian picchvais from a distinguished European collection; and an elegant selection of Indian miniature painting from private American and European collections, including the Estate of Mr Carol Summers. 

Lot 666. A rare black ground painting of Mahakala Panjarnata, Tibet, 18th century; 33 x 21 1/8 in. (83.8 x 56.2 cm). Estimate USD 250,000 - USD 350,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Provenance: Private collection, Australia, by repute.

Note: Fire surrounds a dwarfish and big-bellied Black Lord of the Pavilion, who stands upon a prostrate human figure pinned down atop a lotus throne, which is barely visible through the masses of carefully-shaped flames that encircle each of the retinue figures who surround him. The viewer’s attention is directly drawn to the bright white teeth that protrude in a fierce manner from the gaping red mouth of the deity and his three bulging red-tinged eyes. Atop his head sits a crown with five jewels and five smiling human skulls. His wild gold hair is topped with a vajra and tied with a small serpent resembling the one delicately-rendered around his belly. His heavy gold eyebrows and tufts of facial hair resemble his jewelry in their spiraling designs. The finely painted details of the jewelry, bone ornaments, protective staff, curved knife, blood-filled skull cup, and tiger-skin, were all clearly executed with the finest brush. Mahakala’s garland of fifty severed human heads is also rendered with incredible detail, each expression distinct from the next and each hair defined. Compare these details to those in an example of Panjarnata Mahakala in the Rubin Museum of Art (see figure a).

Figure a: Panjarnatha Mahakala, Central Tibet; early 18th century, ca. 1720, Pigments on cloth, Rubin Museum of Art, C2001.1.4 (HAR 65004).

The beauty and grandeur of the present painting, however, is not all contained within the central figure. This dynamic composition is a result of creative and expertly-painted details filling each and every space between the wrathful retinue of figures: animals emerge between flames, miniature necromancers, monks, and warriors appear in small vignettes, and implements among a feast of gruesome offerings fill the bottom of the canvas, all in harmony with the terrific mood of the painting. The artist of the present work managed to fit an extraordinary volume of figures, flames, symbols, and ritual representations into the composition, and the black ground creates an all-pervasive dark space from which these forms emerge and coalesce. The sheer number of elements packed into the painting and precision with which the mass of details is executed unquestionably makes this painting worthy of display among Tibetan masterworks.

Lot 642. A bronze figure of Chandikeshvara, South India, Tamil Nadu, Chola period, 12th century; 22 ¼ in. (56.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Provenance: William H. Wolff, Inc., New York
Sotheby’s New York, 27 March 1991, lot 51.

Note: This elegantly cast figure depicts the South Indian saint Chandesha, also known as Chandikeshvara. Images of the sixty-three nayanar or Shaivite saints of South India, including Chandikeshvara, are idealized portraits of devotees transformed by bhakti, the state of loving devotion. To these nayanar are attributed more than seven hundred hymns that form the sacred liturgical body recited in Tamil temples, which extol the feats of Shiva and his irresistible beauty. 

In the current work, the poetic ecstasy of Chandikeshvara is manifested into an evocative, sensuous, and idealized form. Revered as the foremost devotee of Shiva, the young cowherd Chandesha worshipped a simple mud lingam, using milk from the cows he tended for the ritual daily lustration. When his father chastised him for wasting milk, Chandesha was so absorbed in meditation that he did not hear his father’s admonition. In a fury, his father kicked the lingam and so Chandesha lashed out with his staff, which miraculously turned into Shiva's sacred battleaxe. Pleased by the intensity of Chandesha's devotion, Shiva and Uma blessed him with a divine garland, hence the name Chandikeshvara. During the Chola period, all Shiva temples had a separate shrine dedicated to Chandikeshvara, usually on the northern side near the sanctum, as the guardian and supervisor of Shaivite temples. To this day, his presence is evoked in Shaivita temple complexes by a clapping of hands by devotees. 

Graceful and richly patinated, Chandikeshvara stands in contrapposto on a foliate pedestal, the arms raised together in anjalimudra with the parashuor battleaxe of Shiva resting in the crook of the left elbow. His face is beatific, the aquiline nose powerful above a rosebud mouth. The broad shoulders and fleshy physique are in marked contrast to the lithe modeling prevalent in early Chola sculpture. The brief, diaphanous dhoti or loincloth is incised with a scrolling vine motif at front and back, secured with a sash affixed around the waist with a girdle clasp and hung in a half-loop across the upper thighs. The tall jatamukuta echoes the plaited jatas of Shiva. Chandikeshvara is ornamented with large round earrings, ear tassels, wide necklaces, armlets on the upper arm, beaded armlets at the elbows and stacked bracelets, as well as stacked anklets on the right leg. He wears the yajnopavitam or sacred thread across the left shoulder. 

The coiled jatamukuta and splay of plaits at the back of the head is favorably comparable with another slightly earlier bronze figure of Chandikeshvara in the British Museum (acc. no. 1988.0425.1), see V. Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, New York, 2003, pp. 162-3, cat. no. 33. Further iconographical details, including the unadorned parashu, the large flat-petaled shirashchakra or halo at the back of the head, and the tightly coiled jatas arrayed a graceful semi-circle across the upper back and which cascade down the shoulders further support a twelfth century dating. For further reading, see C. Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes, New Delhi, 1963, p. 40.

A bronze figure of Saint Chandesha (Chandikeshvara), India, Tamil Nadu, Chennai District, Chola period, circa 1001-1050, 1988,0425.1. © 2019 Trustees of the British Museum.

Lacquer • Jade • Bronze • Ink: The Irving Collection 
Part I: Evening Sale 
20 March | 7pm | New York 
Lacquer, Jade, Bronze, Ink: The Irving Collection evening sale will present 26 of the finest pieces from across the Irvings’ most collected categories of Asian art: lacquer, jade, bronze, and ink, and some select ceramics. Featured lots include a highly important and extremely rare gilt-bronze figure of a multi-armed Guanyin ($4,000,000-6,000,000); an important and extremely rare Imperially inscribed greenish-white jade ‘Twin Fish’ washer ($1,000,000-1,500,000); a rectangular lacquer tray with decoration of autumn grasses and moon, Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), Meiji period ($60,000-80,000); and Lithe Like A Crane, Leisurely Like A Seagull, by Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) ($800,000-1,200,000).  

Lot 814. A highly important and extremely rare gilt-bronze figure of a multi-armed Guanyin, China, Yunnan, Dali Kingdom, 11-12th century; 14 7/8 in. (38 cm.) high. Estimate: $4,000,000-6,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Lot 806.An important and extremely rare Imperially inscribed greenish-white jade ‘Twin Fish’ washer, China, Qing dynasty, Qianlong incised four-character mark and of the period, dated by inscription to the cyclical bingwu year, corresponding to 1786; 10 in. (25.4 cm.) diam. Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Cf. my post: Christie's announces details of lots included in the sale of The Private Collection of Florence and Herbert Irving 

Lot 811. A rectangular lacquer tray with decoration of autumn grasses and moon, Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), Japan, Meiji period, late 19th century; 19 ¼ in. (49 cm.) long. Estimate: US$60,000 - USD 80,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Cf. my post: Three important works by Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) from the Irving Collection at Christie's New York, 20 March 2019 

Lot 817. Fu Baoshi (1904-1965), Lithe Like A Crane, Leisurely Like A Seagull. Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and color on paper. Entitled, inscribed, and signed, with one seal of the artist and one dated seal of renyinyear (1962), 17 ¾ x 26 5/8 in. (45.2 x 67.8 cm). Estimate USD 20,000 - USD 30,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Provenance: Eastern Pacific Co., Hong Kong, 1988.
The Irving Collection, no. 1638.

Lacquer • Jade • Bronze • Ink: The Irving Collection 
Part II: Day Sale 
21 March | 10am & 2pm | New York 
The Day Sale is divided into a Morning Session of Asian Works of Art and an Afternoon Session for English and European Decorative Arts, Carpets, Fine Art, and other Asian Works of Art. The morning session highlights include a silver-and copper-inlaid bronze figure of a Buddha, Western Tibet ($100,000-150,000), a sandstone figure of a male deity, Khmer ($100,000-150,000), and a white jade ‘Bridge Scene’ brushrest and spinach-green jade base ($80,000-120,000). Among the featured lots in the afternoon session are a set of eight George III solid mahogany dining chairs, possibly by Wright & Elwick, circa 1765 ($40,000-60,000); a Chinese Export reverse mirror painting, last quarter 18th century ($25,000-40,000); and a pair of George III silver candelabra by John Wakelin & William Taylor, 1777 ($20,000-30,000). 

Lot 1102. A silver-and copper-inlaid bronze figure of a Buddha, Western Tibet, 11th-12th century; 12 ¼ in. (31 cm.) high. Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 150,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Lot 1107. A sandstone figure of a male deity, Khmer, Angkor period, Angkor Wat Style, 12th century; 28 in. (71.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 150,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Lot 1111. A rare and finely carved white jade ‘Bridge Scene’ brushrest and spinach-green jade base, China, Qing dynasty, 18th-19th century; 6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) long. Estimate USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Lot 1315. A set of eight George III solid mahogany dining chairs, possibly by Wright & Elwick, circa 1765. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Lot 1346. A Chinese Export reverse mirror painting, China, Qing dynasty, last quarter 18th century, 40 in. (101.5 cm.) high, 31 ¼ in. (79.5 cm.) wide. Estimate USD 25,000 - USD 40,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Lot 1320. A pair of George III silver two-light candelabra, mark of John Wakelin & William Taylor, 1777; 14 ½ in. (37 cm.) high, 108 oz. 18 dwt. (3,386.8 gr.). Estimate USD 20,000 - USD 30,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

Cf. my post: Christie's announces details of lots included in the sale of The Private Collection of Florence and Herbert Irving 

Power and Prestige: Important Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from a Distinguished European Collection 
22 March | 10am | New York 
Power and Prestige: Important Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from a Distinguished European Collection presents eleven important archaic bronzes in a single-owner sale. Carefully amassed over two decades by a private collector, the selection encompasses almost all forms of early ritual bronzes. Each piece is exceptional in its craftsmanship and provenance, with all vessels containing important inscriptions. The top lot of the sale is The Shao Fangding, a rare and important bronze ritual rectangular food vessel, late Shang dynasty, Anyang, 11th century BC ($1,000,000-1,500,000). 

Lot 1506. The Shao Fangding, a rare and important bronze ritual rectangular food vessel, late Shang dynasty, Anyang, 11th century BC; 8 1/8 in. (20.7 cm.) high. Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000.© Christie's Images Ltd 2019

The slightly tapering, deep rectangular body is raised on four columnar supports each cast in high relief at the top with a taotie mask. The body is cast in high relief on each side with a large taotie mask with dragon-shaped horns divided by a notched flange repeated at the corners and above to divide a pair of kui dragons, all reserved on leiwengrounds. The everted rim is set with a pair of inverted U-shaped handles. The base of the interior is cast with a single clan sign, Shao. The bronze has a milky green patina with malachite and cuprite encrustation.

Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art 
22 March | 10:30am & 2pm | New York 
Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art will be held on March 22 across two sessions and comprises over 200 lots, representing works from a variety of collecting categories, including early bronze objects, Song ceramics, Ming and Qing porcelain, jades, and fine furniture. Highlights include an exceptional 'numbered' Jun jardinière ($2,500,000-3,500,000); a magnificent Xuande ‘Fruit Spray’ bowl ($2,000,000-3,000,000); a rare Northern Qi gilded grey stone figure of Buddha ($1,200,000-1,800,000), a rare Qianlong Period White Jade washer ($500,000-700,000), and Imperial robes and fine lacquer pieces from important private collections.

ASIAN ART WEEK | ONLINE SALE: 
Contemporary Clay: Yixing Pottery from the Irving Collection 
19 March – 26 March | Online 
Contemporary Clay: Yixing Pottery from the Irving Collection, takes place from March 19-26 and comprises 68 teapots, figures and objects made by well-known Yixing pottery artists. Florence and Herbert Irving, known for their great eye for exceptional quality in art and form, appreciated the unique charm of contemporary Yixing ware. Steeped in earlier Ming and Qing traditions, while drawing creative inspiration from nature and the daily life, each potter represented in this collection has their own distinct style.

Lot 305. An exceptional and rare huanghuali yokeback armchair with 'fu' character and burl splat, Late Ming dynasty, 16th-17th Century; 46 by 25 3/4 by 19 in., 116.8 by 65.4 by 48.2 cm. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD. Lot sold 120,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

constructed of very thick members and of majestic proportions, the generous crestrail with flattened headrest and bulging rounded terminals set on rounded backposts curving sharply back, the wide backsplat in tripartite form flanked by thick barbed, lobed and cusped trimming strips running the entire length of the splat accented with beading and pierced at the top with C-scrolls, the splat itself with an upper squared panel pierced with a stylized fu character in grooved fretwork within a barbed panel, and a central rectangular panel of finely figured nanmu burlwood, above a lobed apron with beading, the armrails terminating in rounded hand-grips set on sharply 'goose-neck' front posts and supporting struts of mock-bamboo lengths issuing from baluster vases, with soft matting seat within a seat frame with ridged edges and rounded outer sides, the legs also accented with squared ridges to the inner edges secured by lobed and cusped aprons with beaded trim rising to a central peak to match the backsplat, with foot stretchers of uneven heights and faceted outer sides supported by lobed aprons on the three main sides, ample traces of original lacquer behind the splat and beneath the seat.

Lot 317. A rare huanghuali'imitation bamboo' square table with 'giant's arm' braces, 17th-18th Century; 32 1/2 by 39 by 39 in., 82.5 by 99 by 99 cm. Estimate 25,000 — 35,000 USD. Lot sold 114,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

with large floating-panel top set on a frame with four corner legs of circular section set on low apron and supporting stretchers all carved to imitate lengths of bamboo, with naturalistic nodes overall, the legs particularly well carved with nodes of increasing heights from the feet to imitate the natural growth of the plant, accented with reticulated curved spandrels pierced with sprays of bamboo leaves, all secured by four sinuous 'giant's arm' braces running from each corner to two transverse braces on the underside of the table, the projecting outer edge of the table finely finished as four lateral strips of bamboo of ever increasing size.