Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Tiger (detail), 1786. Six sliding panels; ink on paper: (two right panels) 180 x 87 cm each, (four left panels) 183.5 x 115.5 cm each, Muryōji, Kushimoto. Important Cultural Property. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

ZURICH - For eight weeks, Japan’s most famous tiger will reside exclusively at Museum Rietberg in Zurich. The story goes that the Japanese artist Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) painted this monumental tiger together with its counterpart, a dragon, on the sliding door panels of the Zen temple Muryōji in a single night in the year 1786. Now the entire temple’s painted walls and a number of other, awe-inspiring masterpieces by Rosetsu are being shown for the first time outside of Japan. Rosetsu’s highly dynamic paintings created with vigorous brushstrokes and sometimes with his fingers, but also his delicate compositions painted with fine brushes and rich colour are replete with energy, wit and modern appeal.

Renowned as one of the most eccentric and imaginative artists in early modern Japan, Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799) produced visually exciting, classification-defying works during his brief career. The exhibition “Rosetsu: Ferocious Brush” unravels the many mysteries of this enigmatic career. An exclusive and expert selection of works by Rosetsu chosen in consultation with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan (Bunkachō) reveals his painting subjects, his relationship to Zen Buddhism, his contacts with patrons outside Kyoto, and his choice of extraordinarily bold images.

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Dragon, 1786. Six sliding anels; ink on paper: (four right panels) 183.5 x 115.5 cm each, (two left panels) 180 x 87 cm each, Muryōji, Kushimoto. Important Cultural Property. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

The exhibition at the Rietberg Museum will survey Rosetsu’s art through a selection of sixty of his most important paintings, beginning with the earliest works in the realist style of his teacher Maruyama Ōkyo (1733–1795), and ending with the haunting and occasionally bizarre final masterpieces of his career. Screen paintings, scrolls, and albums depicting Zen eccentrics, children at play, ethereal beauties, breathtaking landscapes, and vivacious animals and birds will take viewers on a journey through Rosetsu’s own travels and into his fantastic imagination. These works, some of them compellingly realistic and others surprisingly abstract, take us into an Early Modern Japan we did not know and which feels very contemporary. 

The highlight of the exhibition will be a magnificent ensemble of 48 screens and hanging scrolls, displayed in a recreated original floorplan of the Zen temple Muryōji. This Zen temple in the southern part of Japan’s main island holds the largest and most important collection of Rosetsu’s paintings, created in 1786. Various stories recount the creation of this breathtaking ensemble. The installation of these works would present an unprecedented opportunity to view and examine the paintings in a single venue outside their home in Kushimoto, and indeed the first such installation of architecturally specific paintings in an exhibition outside Japan. 

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Monkey on a Rock, c. 1792–1794. Framed panel; ink and color on gold ground, 116.9 x 196.2 cm. Private collection, Japan. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Approximately one-third of the works to be exhibited are registered as Important Cultural Properties or Important Art Objects. Complementing these masterpieces from Japan, paintings from museums, temples, and private collections in Japan, Europe, and the United States will trace the phases of Rosetsu’s life as he pursued his livelihood in Kyoto and the surrounding provinces. The exhibition will close with a dramatic display of abstract landscapes, ghosts, and perhaps his most astonishing work of all, a depiction of 500 Disciples of the Buddha on a surface of only one square inch.

Rosetsu, who hailed from a low-ranking samurai family, gained his reputation among art circles in the imperial capital Kyoto and its neighbouring regions with his untamed personality and his unusual talent. The exhibits run the gamut of formats and subjects, from exquisitely executed scrolls depicting birds and flowers in brilliant polychrome pigments to large-scale sliding doors and folding screens with fantastic landscapes, bizarre figures, and adorable animals. With his unconventional compositions and powerful brushwork Rosetsu always offers a fresh take on traditional subject matter. His paintings never fail to surprise, entertain, and charm.

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Plum Tree, After 1787. Six-panel screen; ink on paper, 166.8 x 354.5 cm, Private collection, New York. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

The show at the Museum Rietberg is the first comprehensive presentation ever to take place outside of Japan. 

The exhibition is jointly curated by Dr Khanh Trinh, Curator of Japanese art, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, and Prof. Matthew McKelway, Takeo and Itsuko Atsumi Professor of Japanese art history; director of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Japanese Art, Columbia University in the City of New York. 

A catalogue in German and English will be published and distributed by Prestel. It will cover ca. 250 pages, with essays, entries, and colour illustrations for all exhibits. The catalogue will present most recent scholarship on the artist and will be the new standard work on Nagasawa Rosetsu in Western languages.

6 September to 4 November 2018.

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Scholars Crossing a Bridge, 1788–1789. Hanging scroll; ink and light color on paper, 119.4 x 54 cm, The San Diego Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Leon D. Bonnet and commemorating the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the Fine Arts Society. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Landscapes with Chinese Figures, 1795–99. Pair of six-panel screens; ink on gold ground, 171.1 x 372.7 cm each The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G.C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Luis V. Bells Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and the Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Cherry Blossoms at Ōmoto, from the album ‘Eight Views of Miyajima’, 1794, Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan. Important Cultural Property. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Cranes Flying Past Mount Fuji, 1794. Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk, 157 x 70.5 cm, Private collection, Japan. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Peonies and Sparrows, 1786, Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, 158 x 67.3 cm, Muryōji, Kushimoto. Important Cultural Property of Wakayama Prefecture. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Nagasawa Rosetsu (1754–1799), Mount Penglai, 1794. Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, 56.6 x 83.7 cm, Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Government of Japan. Important Art Object. Courtesy Museum Rietberg

Lot 1157. A small Longquan celadon ‘Lotus’ bowl, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 3 ½ in. (8.8 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 2,000 - USD 4,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The bowl with deep, rounded sides is carved on the exterior with overlapping petals, and is covered overall with a soft sea-green glaze.

Lot 1308. A Longquan celadon pear-shaped vase, Northern Song dynasty, early 11th century; 8 3/8 in. (21.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 5,000 - USD 8,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

Lot 1291. A Qingbai conical bowl, Northern Song dynasty, 12th century; 8 in. (20.2 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

Lot 1294. An unusual Qingbai conical water dropper, Southern Song dynasty, late 12th-13th century; 2 ¾ in. (7 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

Lot 1294. A Qingbai foliate-rim bowl, Northern Song dynasty, 12th century; 2 ¾ in. (7 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 5,000 - USD 7,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

With widely flared sides that rise to a rim cut with eight petal notches, the bowl is freely carved and rouletted on the interior with a scrolling foliate pattern, and is covered inside and out with a glaze of pale blue color.

 Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 13 - 14 September 2018

Lot 1299. A Qingbai octogonal ewer and cover, Northern Song dynasty, 12th century; 8 ¾ in. (21.3 cm.) high. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The faceted body is applied with a curving spout and a double-strap handle, and the conforming cover is surmounted by an eight-petaled flower and bud-form finial. The ewer and cover are covered with a pale greyish glaze pooling to a faint blue in the recesses.

 Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 13 - 14 September 2018

Lot 1300. A molded Qingbai octagonal vase, Southern Song- early Yuan dynasty, 13th century; 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

Each facet is divided into two registers, the lower molded with tall stems of either lotus, two different peonies, or chrysanthemum, below smaller flower sprigs on the shoulder, all repeated on the other side and separated by vertical ribs. The vase is covered with a glaze of pale blue color, and the flat base is unglazed.

 Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 13 - 14 September 2018

Lot 1297. A rare green Jun bracket-lobed bowl, Northern Song-Jin dynasty, 12th-13th century; 8 5/8 in. (22 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The deep, rounded sides are molded as six petals that rise from the small ring foot to the barbed rim, and are covered inside and out with a crackle-suffused glaze of sea-green color that thins on the ribs of the interior.

Lot 1316. A rare green Jun bud-form water pot, Song-Jin dynasty, 12th-13th century; 3 ¼ in. (8.2 cm.) high. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The water pot of lotus bud-form is covered inside and out with a thick glaze of greyish-green tone thinning to mushroom at the mouth rim and ending in an irregular line above the low, waisted foot to expose the buff stoneware body.

Lot 125. A rare and unusual pair of cloisonné rhombus-shaped vases, Jiaqing-Daoguang period (1796-1850); 14 1/2in (36.8cm) high. Estimate US$ 30,000 - 50,000 (€ 26,000 - 43,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

NEW YORK, NY.- On September 10 and 12, Bonhams will offer three auctions — Chinese Works of Art and Paintings, Ancient Skills, New Worlds: Twenty Treasures of Japanese Metalwork from a Private Collection, and Fine Japanese and Korean Art. The sales present an array of 600 rare and exquisite metalwork, cloisonné, ceramics, prints, and paintings with accessible estimates, which offers an opportunity for both seasoned and new collectors to develop and enrich their collections. Public exhibitions begin September 6. 

Chinese Works of Art and Paintings- September 10 at 1PM 
The sale of Chinese Works of Art and Paintings will be held on September 10 and features 300 lots, representing works from a variety of collecting categories including ceramics, paintings and calligraphy, cloisonné, furniture, scholar’s objects, and snuff bottles. Highlights include a rare and unusual pair of cloisonné rhombus-shaped vases from the Jiaqing/Daoguang period (estimate: $30,000-50,000); Summer Mountain, 1710, a hanging scroll painted by Huang Ding (1660-1730) (estimate: $30,000-50,000); Figure and Landscape #4, 1971, a modern painting by Chuang Che (Zhuang Zhe, b. 1934) (estimate: $25,000-35,000); and a Huanghuali Table Top Cabinet, 18th century (estimate: $15,000-20,000). 

Lot 125. A rare and unusual pair of cloisonné rhombus-shaped vases, Jiaqing-Daoguang period (1796-1850); 14 1/2in (36.8cm) high. Estimate US$ 30,000 - 50,000 (€ 26,000 - 43,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018.

Each of lozenge section, made in the mirror image of the other, the rectangular sides each delicately enameled with a vignette of flowers in an elegant and richly decorated vase flanked by archaic bronze vessels and other antiques, arranged with scholar's implements, auspicious objects and fruit, all against a wan fret ground, enclosed by key fret borders and separated by raised dentil-notched flanges set at the corners, all beneath a neck decorated with elaborate Buddhist canopies suspending chimes and tassels below a galleried rim, inscribed in cursive script Recuerdo á Elena Smith de Gomez Diciembre 5 de 1885, all supported on a pedestal foot decorated with leaping carp against churning waves, the gilded foot impressed with two-character relief mark Decheng.

Note: According to Bèatrice Quette (ed.) in Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, p. 167, the production of enamels by the Imperial Manufactures decreased after the Jiaqing period, and the finest surviving cloisonne objects of this period exhibit marks of official and private organizations and workshops, with Dechang being one of them.

The workmanship on these pair of vases is exceptionally fine. There are hardly any bubbles in the enamels or spilling over of colors, and the wirework is exquisite. Each of the vases and bronze vessels decorating the sides are rendered in great detail, and all the flowers and fruit are so realistically portrayed as to be easily identifiable. The level of skill exhibited on this pair of vases is reminiscent of that seen on one side of a Qianlong period two-sided cloisonne panel sensitively depicting narcissus, nandina and plum blossoms against a wan fret ground, illustrated op. cit., fig. 7.23, p. 142. The similar level of quality on the present lot would therefore suggest an early 19th century date. Furthermore, the rims of the present lot are inscribed with the year 1885, indicating that the vases were produced prior to that date. 

Other cloisonne pieces with similar Decheng marks are in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, MA, dated 19th century, and the Phoenix Art Museum, AZ, dated Guangxu period, illustrated op.cit., no. 146, p. 299 and no.147, p. 300 respectively. The latter example came with a note indicating that the Dechang name was so well-known by that time that copies bearing the Decheng name were circulating during the Guangxu period, op. cit., fig. 2.21, p. 28. 

Further examples of Decheng cloisonne have sold at Christie's, New York; 18 September 2014, lot 651, and 20 October 2004, lots 445 and 446.

Lot 224. Huang Ding (1660-1730), Gazing at Waterfall. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, inscribed and signed Fan Qi, followed by one artist's seal reading Fan Qi yin, with four collectors' seals Yixuan guomu, Yinshi xiantang zhencang jinshi shuhua zhi zhang, dingchou jiehou yucun, and Zhichen suocang, mounted with an inscription by Pan Feisheng (1858-1934) above the painting, dated dingmao (1927). 23 x 14 3/4in (58 x 37.2cm). Estimate: US$ 5,000 - 7,000 (€ 4,300 - 6,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

Lot 273^W. Chuang Che (Zhuang Zhe, b. 1934), Figure and Landscape #4, 1971. Framed, acrylic and collage on canvas, dated 1971, signed Zhuang Zhe in Chinese. 51 1/4 x 66 1/4in (130.2 x 168.3cm). Estimate: US$ 25,000 - 35,000 (€ 21,000 - 30,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

Provenance: Forsythe Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 弗爾賽畫廊，密西根州 label to the reverse.

Lot 97. A Huanghuali Table Top Cabinet, 18th century; 9 1/2 x 24 1/4 x 16 1/2in (24.2 x 60.9 x 41.9cm). Estimate: $15,000-20,000 (€ 13,000 - 17,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

The well-figured top panel set into a mitered, mortise and tenon frame over a pair of drawers set over a long storage compartment, the side panels and fronts of the drawers elegantly carved with leafy foliage, the scalloped apron and short cabriole legs, carved with beaded edges extending upwards to form foliate scrolls.

Ancient Skills, New Worlds: Twenty Treasures of Japanese Metalwork from a Private Collection- September 12 at 10AM 
Among the highlights of the week is Ancient Skills, New Worlds: Twenty Treasures of Japanese Metalwork from a Private Collection, a sale completely devoted to the finest examples of metal work from the Meiji Era. In addition, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, one of the key dates in the history not just of Japan, but of East Asia as a whole. Leading the collection includes a large and outstanding rare documentary bronze incense-burner, Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1880 (estimate: $90,000-120,000). This major work includes a classical-style winged Pegasus, a motif not seen in traditional Japanese art. While no catalogue illustration has been found to confirm the speculation, it seems more than likely that it was exhibited outside Japan, perhaps at the 1878 Paris Exposition. 

Lot 10. Kiryu Kosho Kaisha 起立工商会社 (The Pioneerinf Craft and Commerce Company). A Large and Outstanding Rare Documentary Bronze Incense-Burner, Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1880; 34in (86.5cm) high with stand; 27 1/8in (69cm) high without stand. Estimate: US$ 90,000-120,000 (€ 77,000 - 100,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018.

Of rectangular form and stepped outline with two vertical handles, the mottled reddish-brown patinated bronze body decorated with several bands of decoration largely based on early Chinese ornament, variously executed in different techniques as follows: the base cast with seigaiha (stylized wave) designs, the foot cast and inlaid with floral designs, the front and back of the body each with cast relief of a hōō bird surrounded by leaves and tendrils, the sides of the body each cast with a peony blossom, a wider band above the body cast with ascending and descending lappets, the bands below the mouth variously decorated in flat gold inlay with stylized fish, confronted hōō and other exotic birds, and hares and clematis, the topmost register of the vase, the lowest register of the cover, and the handles cast with concentric whorls, the sides of the lid decorated in flat gold inlay with exotic birds and squirrels and grapes, the topmost register of the cover cast with stylized floral motifs, the cover surmounted by a prancing, richly caparisoned winged horse with inlaid gold and silver decoration; with a later wood stand with gold-lacquer squirrel-and-grape designs echoing the designs around the cover.

Note: The present lot is a very rare instance of a major work whose original design appears in Onchi zuroku, a collection of more than 2,500 designs compiled by the Japanese government for arts and crafts destined for display at the great domestic and international expositions of the later nineteenth century; the exhibitions concerned were the 1877 and 1894 Naikoku Kangyō Hakurankai (Domestic Industrial Promotion Exhibitions), the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle. The examples preserved in Onchi zuroku (and published on CD-ROM in 1997 with the assistance of the Khalili Family Trust), several of them from the hands of major painters of the time, are selections from a still greater number of designs that were commissioned by the Hakurankai Jimukyoku (Expositions Office) in response to requests to craftsmen throughout Japan who aspired to participate in these great events. The designs (front and side views) relating to the present lot, described in the annotations as a kōro (incense-burner) despite the absence of openings to allow smoke to escape, exactly reproduce the profile, the vertical handles, the caparisoned winged horse finial, and the surface decoration. Separate documentation within Onchi zuroku confirms that this design was prepared for Kiryū Kōshō Kaisha (Pioneering Craft and Commerce Company), the leading public-private trading enterprise described in the footnote to lot 1.

Detail from Onchi zuroku.

Although the incense-burner's maker is not mentioned, the high quality of both casting and decoration suggests that the great Suzuki Chōkichi (see lots 1 and 20) very probably played a major part in its creation. This masterpiece of the bronze-caster's art bears eloquent testimony to the makers' ambition to vie with their European contemporaries and attract critical acclaim through a bold combination of Chinese form and decoration with a classical-style winged Pegasus, a motif not seen in traditional Japanese art. While no catalogue illustration has been found to confirm the speculation, it seems more than likely that it was exhibited outside Japan, perhaps at the 1878 Paris Exposition.

Reference: Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan 東京国立博物館 (Tokyo National Museum) 1997, CD-ROM, image nos. C40027.jpg and C40028.jpg, index no. 54–8, left-hand page: Daisangō kōro 第三号　香爐 (No. 3, incense-burner) Kōshō Kaisha 工商会社 ([Kiryū] Kōshō Kaisha) and no. 54–9, right-hand page: Daisangō sokumen 大三号　側面 (No. 3, side view).

Further highlights include a mixed-metal model of a hawk with an en-suite lacquer stand by Tomonobu, Meiji era (1868–1912), 1898 (estimate: $100,000-125,000), an exquisitely crafted figure of a hawk that were widely admired by the Japanese elite; a rare pair of large bronze hōō bird and tortoise okimono ornaments by Muroe Kichibei (1841-1903), Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1880, (estimate: $60,000-80,000), a striking, boldly modeled pair of ancient Chinese mythical animals; and a rare large bronze charger depicting Takashima Ōiko and Saeki Ujinaga, Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1890–1900 (estimate: $50,000-60,000), a rare example of later Meiji-era metalwork with a design taken from the work of one of the most celebrated artists of the time, the painter and print-designer Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.  

Lot 15. Tomonobu 友信, A Mixed-Metal Model of a Hawk with an En-Suite Lacquer Stand, Meiji era (1868–1912), 1898. Height overall 24 1/8 in. (61.2 cm). Height without stand 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm). Estimate: US$ 100,000 - 125,000 (€ 86,000 - 110,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018.

Naturalistically modeled, of silver, shibuichi, shakudō, and gold, standing on its left leg with its right leg raised, the feathers and other details very finely rendered, the original stand of black lacquer decorated in gold lacquer with a wide variety of mon (crests) of prominent Edo-period families and with similarly decorated shibuichifittings, an opening in the bird's back fitted with a silver liner and with a detachable lid pierced with three openings and signed and dated inside with chiseled characters Tsuchinoe-inu no haru Tomonobu kizamu 戊戌之春友信刻 (Carved by Tomonobu, spring 1898), with the original elaborately knotted and tasseled red silk cords.

Note: This exquisitely modeled figure of a hawk is one of a small number that were made by various artists in the years following the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At the Exposition, Suzuki Chōkichi (see lots 1, 10, and 20) had exhibited a set of twelve lifelike hawks (now registered as Important Cultural Properties) that he had modeled and chiseled, with the help of 24 assistants, from a wide range of patinated copper alloys under the direction of the legendary Paris-based art dealer Hayashi Tadamasa (1853–1906) and with advice from a professional falconer. Like the present example, each of Suzuki's falcons came complete with its elaborate gold-and-black lacquered stand and silk restraining cord,

The twelve birds were widely admired for their meticulous verisimilitude, miraculous craftsmanship, and evocation of the splendors of a favorite pastime of the Japanese elite, features all admirably emulated in this version made only five years later by Tomonobu. Little is known of this artist beyond the facts that his family name might have been Aoki and he lived in Tokyo, but it is more than likely that he might have been directly trained by Chōkichi himself. 

A similar hawk by Sano Takachika (see preceding lot) is in the Khalili Collection. 

Reference: Haynes 2001, H 10017.0
Impey and Fairley 1995, cat. nos. 120
Wakayama 1972, p. 280; 青木氏。謙介という。東京市住。明治。(Aoki Tomonobu, called Kensuke, resident in Tokyo, Meiji)
Yokomizo 2006.

Lot 16. A Rare Large Bronze Charger Depicting Takashima Ōiko and Saeki Ujinaga,  室江吉兵衛 (1841-1903), A Rare Pair of Large Bronze Hōō Bird and Tortoise Okimono Ornaments, Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1880. Height 32 7/8 in. (83.4 cm). Estimate: US$ 60,000 - 80,000 (€ 51,000 - 69,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018.

The tall dark-brown patinated bronze birds with complementary symmetry, one with its left wing extended and its right folded, the other with its right wing extended and its left folded, each standing on the back of a kame(tortoise), the feathers and other details minutely chiseled and inlaid in gold, silver, and copper, the edges of the turtles' carapaces inlaid in gold with a stylized cloud design, the eyes inlaid in gold, each signed underneath the turtle with chiseled characters Dainihonkoku Etchū Takaoka Muroe Kichibei tsukuru 大日本國　越中　高岡　室江吉兵衛造 (Made by Muroe Kichibei of Takaoka in Etchū [Province] in the Country of Great Japan).

Note: During the Edo period (1615–1868), the cities of Kanazawa in Kaga Province (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) and Takaoka in Etchū Province (Toyama Prefecture) developed as major artistic metalworking centers thanks to the patronage of the Maeda samurai clan, aside from the ruling Tokugawa dynasty the wealthiest in all Japan. In the very early years of the Meiji era, government bureaucrats encouraged the development of a metalworking industry in both cities, in particular by commissioning work for display at the Vienna Weltausstelllung (World Exposition) held in 1873, and following the success of Japanese metalwork at that great global event Takaoka entrepreneurs set up private companies to capitalize on new opportunities for international trade. The city remains to this day a major center for the manufacture of ornamental bronze.

Like Suzuki Chōkichi in Tokyo (see lots 1, 10, 20), Muroe Kichibei and his colleagues in Takaoka and Kanazawa combined outstanding bronze-casting and bronze-finishing skills, honed by centuries creating Buddhist images, with the crafts of inlay and chiseling that had long been an essential component of sword decoration. This striking, boldly modeled pair of ornaments features two of the ancient Chinese mythical animals associated with the four cardinal directions: the hōō (conventionally translated into English as "phoenix") and the kame, a tortoise-like creature, here with what looks like a dragon's head. These creatures are depicted on some of the earliest masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist art and the hōō has long been a symbol of the emperor, in both China and Japan, making it a particularly apt iconographic choice during a period defined by the re-assertion of imperial power in the person of the Meiji Emperor.

Surviving works by this artist displayed in recent years at Takaoka City Museum of Art include another pair of okimono of similar size to the present lot, including two more ancient Chinese auspicious creatures—the kirin (unicorn) and dragon—in addition to the hōō and kame, and a bronze flower vase engraved and inlaid with a cat on a banana leaf. The museum also owns an inlaid and engraved flower vase by Muroe that is of similar form to the pair by Suzuki Chōkichi offered in the present catalogue (lot 20). 

Reference: Bunkachō n.d.
Meiji-ki Takaoka Dōki Chōkin Meisaku Hozonkai 明治期高岡銅器彫金名作保存会 (Association for the Preservation of Masterpieces of Meiji-Era Bronze Vessels and Metalwork from Takaoka), 1985, pp. 156-157
Takaoka-shi Bijutsukan 高岡市美術館 (Takaoka City Museum of Art) 2012.

 Lot 2. The Miyao 宮尾 Company of Yokohama, after Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. Takashima Ōiko and Saeki Ujinaga, Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1890–1900. Diameter 26 5/8 in. (67.5 cm). Estimate: US$ 50,000 - 60,000 (€ 43,000 - 51,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018.

Circular with a flat rim, the chocolate-brown patinated bronze body cast and inlaid in gold, silver, shakudō, shibuichi, and copper with a scene featuring Takashima Ōiko clenching the hand of Saeki Ujinaga under her upper arm watched by two children, the rim with gilt inlay of stylized cloud ornament, signed Miyao tsukuru 宮尾造 (Made by Miyao) with a gold-inlaid seal-style mark Miyao 宮尾.

Note: Founded by Miyao Eisuke, the Miyao Company of Yokohama specialized in the manufacture of bronze sculptures, embellished with gold and silver as well as patinated copper alloys, that represent generic samurai warriors as well as more precisely identifiable characters from Japanese myth and legend. In addition, the company also made a smaller number of pieces in other formats such as incense-burners, vases, and chargers.

The present lot stands out from the prolific production of the Miyao Company on account of its format, quality and above all its design. Only a few chargers by the company are known and this one is of exceptionally large size, with decoration of an unusually high quality not often seen in standard Miyao figures. Furthermore, it is a rare example of a piece of later Meiji-era metalwork with a design taken from the work of one of the most celebrated artists of the time, the painter and print-designer Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (see also lot 9). 

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Takashima Oiko no hanashi (The Strong Woman Oiko of Takashima), 1889.

Yoshitoshi's two-sheet woodblock print, published in April 1889, was likely inspired by an earlier version by Katsushika Hokusai that appears as a double-page spread in Volume Nine of his series of Manga (Random Drawings), published in 1819 (p. 14). It depicts a semi-historical incident involving the wrestler Saeki of Echizen Province and Ōiko, a young widow noted for her great strength. On his way to Kyoto to take part in a tournament, Saeki came across Ōiko at a stone bridge in Ōmi Province and attempted a sexual assault, but she gripped his hand under her upper arm so hard, despite the fact that she was also carrying a bucket of water on her head, that she was able to drag him back to her farmhouse. There she subjected him to a rigorous training regime, including compulsory consumption of nutritious but rock-hard rice, that enabled him to triumph at the tournament. 

The designer of the charger took several liberties with Yoshitoshi's composition—adding an extra bucket of water and two child onlookers, omitting the waterwheel, changing the costume design and making other additions that were a better fit with Miyao house style—but retained all the unresolved tension and girl-power swagger of the original print.

Fine Japanese and Korean Art- September 12, 1PM 
Following the single-owner collection of metalwork, Bonhams will offer a large range of over 300 Japanese and Korean works of art dating from the 13th to the 20thcentury. The sale of consists of screens, ceramics, paintings, prints, lacquer and metalwork, Among the highlights are a pair of six-panel screens of Scenes from the Tale of Genji, Edo period (1615-1868), 17th century (estimate: $30,000-50,000). Additional highlights include a fine moriage cloisonné-enamel vase by Ando Jubei (1876-1953), Taisho era (1912-1926), circa 1920 (estimate: $25,000-35,000); Hotei with a treasure sack by Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1786) Edo period (1651-1868), 18th century (estimate: $10,000-15,000); and a Korean granite figure of a boy attendant (Dongja), Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897), 18th/19th century (estimate: $20,000-30,000).

Lot 1082. Anonymous, Scenes from Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji), Edo period (1615-1868), 17th century; a pair of six-panel screens painted in ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper with 12 scenes from the Heian-period novel, the clouds separating the scenes raised in relief, 62 x 139 1/4in (157.5 x 353.7cm). Estimate:US$ 30,000 - 50,000 (€ 26,000 - 43,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

Note: The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikubu's masterpiece written in the eleventh century is considered one of the greatest works of Japanese literature. The story follows the life of a fictional prince, the son of an emperor but with no official rank of his own. Illustrations based on the narrative have been produced countless times across various media starting soon after the novel was first written. Early examples were in smaller formats such as hand scrolls and albums, but by the fifteenth century, folding screens featuring illustrations from the narrative began to appear and gradually, the genre evolved until scenes were selected and painted specifically for folding screens. Typically, representations on folding screens feature vignettes from the various chapters arranged roughly in chronological order, starting in the top right of the right screen and continuing down each panel in turn from right to left. The current lot also follows this convention.

The right-most panels feature scenes from Kiritsubo (Chapter 1) in the top right corner with Wakamurasaki (Chapter 5) below. The middle panels are painted with scenes from Hatsune (Chapter 23) and Momiji no ga (Chapter 7). The left panels show scenes from Aoi (Chapter 9) and Utsusemi (Chapter 3). 

The left screen is painted on the right panels with scenes from Miotsukushi (Chapter 14) and Suzumushi (Chapter 38). The central panels feature a different episode from Momoji no ga (Chapter 7). The left panels feature Tamakazura, and the falconers from Miyuki (Chapter 29) in the lower left.

Lot 1218. Ando Jubei (1876-1953), A fine moriage cloisonné-enamel vase, Taisho era (1912-1926), circa 1920; 12 1/8in (30.6cm) high. Estimate:US$ 25,000 - 35,000 (€ 21,000 - 30,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

Of meiping form and decorated in standard and musen ("wireless") cloisonné techniques in silver wire and brightly colored enamels with a persimmon tree with leafy branches heavy with fruit, the persimmons, leaves, and branches raised in relief, all silhouetted against a pale blue background, signed in an oval cartouche Ando sei in silver wires and red enamel on a brown enamel ground, the rim stamped Jungin (Pure silver); with an original fitted hardwood stand and original wood padded storage box with a hinged cover.

Lot 1070. Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1786), Hotei with a treasure sack, Edo period (1651-1868), 18th century. Hanging scroll, ink on paper with Hotei holding his open treasure sack on which are inscribed the characters Fukuju kai muryo (A limitless ocean of good fortune and happiness), sealed Kokantei, Hakuin and Ekaku, 10 1/8 x 12 3/4in (25.7 x32.4cm). Estimate US$ 10,000 - 15,000 (€ 8,600 - 13,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

With a wood storage box

Note: The great priest and painter Hakuin probably depicted Daruma, the Indian founder of Zen Buddhism, more often than any other figure subject, but he was perhaps even fonder of Hotei ("Cloth Bag"), the jolly wandering Chinese monk who, in Hakuin's art, stands in part for Hakuin himself and in part for Everyman, with all his foibles and virtues. Here he is shown seated, mostly obscured by his immense treasure sack, which he holds wide open, clenching one edge between his teeth. On the bag is written the phrase Fukuju kai muryo, an expression meaning limitless happiness, and a reference to Hotei's open treasure bag endlessly dispenses good fortune in the form of gifts.

For other examples of this subject by Hakuin, see Yoshizawa Katsuhiro (Hanazono Daigaku Kokusai Zengaku Kenkyūjo), Hakuin Zenga bokuseki (1050 Paintings and Calligraphies by the Zen Master Hakuin), 3 volumes, Tokyo, Nigensha, 2009, cat. nos. 310-312.

Lot 1297. A granite figure of a boy attendant (Dongja), Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897), 18th-19th century; 22 3/8in (57cm) high. Estimate US$ 10,000 - 15,000 (€ 8,600 - 13,000). © Bonhams 2001-2018

Standing in a long Chinese-inspired court costume and holding "the Peach of Immortality" in both hands to the front, his youthful face with a gentle expression and wearing the traditional plaited coiffure of two chignons.

PARIS.- En seize éditions, Parcours des mondes s’est imposé comme le plus grand événement international de référence dans la spécialité des arts premiers. Ce « salon ludique en plein air », souvent délicieusement gratifié des faveurs de l’été indien, invite à se joindre aux galeries d’art d’Afrique, des Amériques et d’Océanie et aux galeries expertes en arts d’Asie. Pour sa XVIIe édition ( du 11 au 16 septembre au cœur de SaintGermain-des-Prés, Paris) collectionneurs, amateurs et curieux embarquent pour un tour du monde complet des coutumes cultuelles et rites initiatiques, des représentations de l’Humain ou de l’Animal, et de l’artefact décoratif ou pratique. Le Parcours des mondes 2018 s’articulera également autour de trois temps forts : un hommage à la mythique exposition de 1930 de la Galerie du Théâtre Pigalle et des conférences-débats qui se tiendront à L’Espace Tribal, ainsi que des expositions thématiques organisées au sein de certaines galeries participantes. La richesse de ce tour d’horizon confère au Parcours des mondes une force attractive, aussi bien auprès des nombreuses galeries participantes, que de ses visiteurs, venus des quatre coins de la planète. 

PARIS.- In its sixteen years of existence, Parcours des Mondes has established itself as the world’s most important international tribal art show. This multiple-venue, open-air art fair is always enjoyable and often benefits from Indian summer weather. It affords visitors the opportunity to visit galleries from around the world specializing in the arts of Africa, Oceania, the Americas, as well as the arts of Asia. For its seventeenth edition, held from September 11 through September 16, 2018, in the heart of Paris’ Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, collectors, aficionados, and the merely curious will, as has become customary, embark on a voyage through the customs and rituals of the world’s traditional cultures, expressed through representations that are sometimes human, sometimes animal, sometimes decorative, and sometimes utilitarian. The 2018 Parcours des Mondes will center around three main events: an homage to the legendary 1930 exhibition that was held at the Galerie du Théâtre Pigalle, a series of lectures and conversations that will take place at the Espace Tribal, and the thematic exhibitions that many of the participating galleries will present. Of course, the wealth of the Parcours des Mondes’ offerings makes it a destination both for the galleries that exhibit there and for its visitors, who come from the world over to attend

Statue janus kabedja, Luba-Hemba, République démocratique du Congo, Hauteur: 36 cm. Historique: Paul Chadourne, Paris© photo Vincent Girier-Dufournier.

PARCOURS DES MONDES EXPANDS ITS HORIZONS 
Adam Lindemann is this year’s honorary president. A major force on the contemporary art scene, but also a major collector and aficionado of tribal art, Lindemann operates Venus Over Manhattan in New York City. He is the author of Collecting Contemporary, a work that became a collectors’ bible of sorts soon after it was published by Taschen in 2006. His presidency of Parcours des Mondes underscores the importance of the relationships between the fields of tribal and contemporary art. 

Statue Malagan, Nord de la Nouvelle-Irlande, Hauteur : 80 cm. Provenance : Ernst Ascher, Paris© photo Hughes Dubois.

AN HOMAGE TO THE 1930 EXHIBITION AT THE GALERIE DU THÉÂTRE PIGALLE 
An homage to the legendary 1930 exhibition organized by Tristan Tzara, Charles Ratton, and Pierre Loeb at the Galerie du Théâtre Pigalle in Paris will be presented at Espace Tribal in the form of a thematic exhibition. The brainchild of Nicolas Rolland and Charles Wesley-Hourdé—two young players on the tribal art market—in collaboration with Tribal Art magazine, the show will reunite a selection of artworks that were displayed at this historic event, the impact of which was decisive in developing a taste and a market for tribal art. The inclusion of archival documents and photographs will enhance the presentation. The 1930 show will also be the subject of morning lecture programs at Café Tribal and the evening discussions that have made Espace Tribal well known as a place for reflection and the sharing of knowledge at Parcours des Mondes.

Crochet à crâne Blackwater, Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, Hauteur : 57 cm. Provenance : Bela Hein, Paris© photo Martin Doustar.

La programmation 2018 au sein des galeries de Parcours des mondes fera évidemment la part belle à la magie et au surnaturel, car ce sont justement les limites de l’intellect qui nous enjoignent à sonder notre âme au moyen de l’art, pour répondre à nos questions éternelles.

THEMATIC EXHIBITIONS 
On first blush, Parcours des Mondes may appear to be a trip through time to experience the mores and cultures of an exotic “other,” as perceived from the perspective of the “self” with which we are so familiar. However, in reality the event invites us to take an internal journey to consider themes and issues that are fundamentally universal but to which approaches vary from continent to continent. The focused exhibitions that will be presented by a number of Parcours des Mondes’ galleries are a manifestation of this concept. The fair demonstrates that art is the reflection of human experience without limits or borders, in which representation and ritual provide portals to the incomprehensible and sacred phenomenon of life.  

The exhibitions that galleries are planning for the 2018 Parcours des Mondes will touch on the subjects of magic and the supernatural, since it is the very limits of our intellect that cause us to search our souls through artistic expression in the quest for answers to our eternal questions.

STÈLE, Arussi, région de Chachamané, Éthiopie, XIXe siècle, H. : 142 cm, Galerie Afrique, 3, rue Guénégaud. © Frantz Dufour.

Chevet. Formé d’un appui-tête incurvé reposant sur un abaque couronnant une colonne cannelée à la base évasée. Égypte, Ancien Empire, 2700-2200 av. J.-C. Ivoire et restaurations visibles, 18 x 14,3 cm. ARTEAS LTD, 15, rue de seine. © Vincent Girier Dufournier.

Provenance : ancienne collection italienne Giancarlo Ligabue (1931-2015) acquis chez Charles Ede London en 1975. 

Appui-nuque Luba, RDC, Bois, Vers 1860, Hauteur : 17 cm. Galerie Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, 27, rue de Seine. © Photo réalisée par Vincent Dufournier.

Provenance : collection privée Anglaise. 

Masque Hemba Soko Mutu, R.D.C., 19ème siècle, Hauteur: 15.2 cm. Galerie Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, 27, rue de Seine. © Photo réalisée par Vincent Dufournier.

Provenance : Galerie Leloup, Mars 1990; Collection privée anglaise. 

MASQUE DE THÉÂTRE OKINA, JAPON, Représentant le personnage Hakushiki-Jō, Période Muromachi (1336-1576), Bois, polychromie, crin, H. : 17,5 cm. Galerie Alain Bovis, 9, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Vincent Luc, agence Phar.

Exposé et publié dans Samouraï, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, 2012, p. 192

ÉTRIER D’ÉCHASSE, Ȋles Marquises, Polynésie, XVIIIe-XIXe siècle, Bois, H. : 36,5 cm. Galerie Alain Bovis, 9, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Vincent Luc, agence Phar.

Publié dans Art Océanien, Anthony JP Meyer, 1995, ill. 565. 

MASQUE DE THÉÂTRE NUO, CHINE Représentant le personnage Maître di pan, Bois, polychromie, H. : 15 cm, XVIIIe-XIXe siècle. Galerie Alain Bovis, 9, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Mathieu Ferrier

Exposé et publié dans Le Masque de la Chine, musée Jacquemart André, Paris, France, 2007, p. 165. 

STATUETTE, Songye, république démocratique du Congo, XVIIIe-XIXe siècle, Bois à patine suintante, cauris, H. : 37 cm. Galerie Alain Bovis, 9, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Vincent Luc, agence Phar

MASQUE DE DANSE, Sépik / Ramu, région côtière, bas Sépik, Papouasie Nouvelle Guinée, XIXe siècle, Bois, pigments H. : 33 cm. Chris Boylan - Oceanic Art, 9, rue Visconti. © Lucio Nigro.

Provenance : Wayne Heathcote, Royaume-Uni. 

STATUE DEBLE, Senufo, Côte d’Ivoire Fin du XIXe-début du XXe siècle, Bois H. : 123 cm. Galerie Olivier Castellano, 34, rue Mazarine© Vincent Girier Dufournier

CHAMBRANLE DE PORTE, Maison cérémonielle Maori (détail), Nouvelle Zélanden Vers 1600, H. : 72 cm. Kevin Conru, 27, rue de Seine. © Hughes Dubois

Provenance : Alain Schoffel, France

Tabatière et bâton de danse, Zoulou, Afrique du Sud, XIXe siècle, Corne et bois, H. : 72 cm. Kevin Conru, 27, rue de Seine. © Kevin Conru, photo Hughes Dubois.

Provenance : collection Schoeller. 

FIGURE FÉMININE JONYELENI, Bambara, région de Segou, Mali, Début du XXe siècle, Bois H. : 51 cm. Dandrieu - Giovagnoni, Rome, 8, rue des Beaux-Arts.© Claudio Moretti

MASQUE, Dan Mano, Liberia, Bois, fibre, os, H. : 26 cm. Dalton + Somaré, Milan, 22, rue de Seine© Dalton Somaré

MASQUE CHAMANIQUE, Népal, XIXe siècle, Bois, H. : 28,5 cm. Jo De Buck Tribal Art, Bruxelles, 19, rue de Seine. 

TABOURET, Hemba, république démocratique du Congo ,Environ 1930, H. : 56 cm. . Joshua Dimondstein Tribal Arts, Los Angeles, 29, rue de Seine. © Scott McCue Photography.

Provenance : acquis par un collectionneur new-yorkais au début des années 1970. Resté dans cette collection jusqu'en 2018. Un tabouret similaire se trouve dans le musée de Kinshasa

STATUE FÉTICHE, Yombe, république démocratique du Congo, Fin du XIXe siècle-début du XXe siècle, H. : 25 cm. . Joshua Dimondstein Tribal Arts, Los Angeles, 29, rue de Seine. © Scott McCue Photography.

Provenance : ancienne collection de l'officier colonial allemand Dorbritz, Numéro d'inventaire écrit sur la Yombe : 57756. Une autre statue fétiche yombe de la collection Dorbritz fut acquise par le Linden Museum, Stuttgart, en 1908 (inv. n° 57752). Ex Johann Levy, Paris

MASQUE DE DANSE, Gurunsi, Burkina Faso, région de Léo, XXe siècle, Bois polychrome, H. : 107 cm. Galerie Dodier, Avranches, 35-37, rue de Seine© Michel Gurfinkel

VASE, Pérou, côte nord. Civilisation Viru, 400 / 100 siècle avant J.C. Céramique lustrée ocre-rouge à dessins géométriques noirs. D. : 17,2 / 23,5 cm. Galerie Dodier, Avranches, 35-37, rue de Seine.

MASQUE DE CHAMANE, Evenk, région de Krasnoyarsk, Sibérie occidentale, Russie, XIXe siècle, Cuivre martelé, suie. H. : 26 cm. Martin Doustar, Bruxelles, 4, rue des Beaux-Arts © Martin Doustar.

VÉNUS, Okhotsk, Sibérie orientale, Russie, XIXe siècle ou antérieur, ivoire de morse, H. : 10,5 cm. Martin Doustar, Bruxelles, 4, rue des Beaux-Arts © Martin Doustar

STATUE D’ANCÊTRE, Tabwa mikisi, sud-est de la république démocratique du Congo et nord-ouest de la Zambie, Bois, H. : 57,45 cm. Entwistle, Paris / Londres, 5, rue des Beaux-Arts© Archives Entwistle

STATUETTE TONGIENNE, Ȋles Ha’apai, royaume de Tonga, Polynésie, Début du XIXe siècle, Dent de cachalot (Physeter microcephalus), H. : 12,8 cm. Entwistle, Paris / Londres, 5, rue des Beaux-Arts © Archives Entwistle 

Provenance : collection privée, Royaume-Uni ; Sotheby's Londres, 3 juillet 1978, lot 301 ;
Entwistle, Londres (acquis à la vente précédente) ; Jean-Claude Bellier, Paris ; Entwistle, Londres ; collection privée, États-Unis (acquise auprès du précédent en 1993).
Publiée dans Polynesian Art at Auction 1965-1980, Charles Mack, éditions Northboro, MA, 1982, p. 248 et 249, pl. 110 ; Catalogue of Antiquities, Primitive Art, Islamic, Indian, Tibetan, Nepalese and South-East Asian Art, Sotheby's Londres, 3 et 4 juillet, 1978, lot 301, pl. L.

SCULPTURE FÉMININE RITUELLE, Baoulé (influences Guro) ou Guro, république de Côte d’Ivoire, XIXe siècle, Bois sculpté, patine d’usage brune brillante, fines craquelures, dépôts 51,5 x 13,5 x 13 cm. Yann Ferrandin, 33, rue de Seine.© Hughes Dubois, Paris.

STATUE D'ANCÊTRE, Kulap, Région de Namatanai, Nouvelle Irlande, Archipel Bismarck, XIXe siècle, Roche calcaire, 40 x 10,5 x 9 cm. Finch & Co, Londres , 10, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Finch & Co

Provenance : Ex Linden-Museum Stuttgart, Allemagne
Ex collection Heinrich (un collectionneur du début du XXème siècle à Stuttgart) avec son étiquette de collection attachée
Transmis par descendance. Probablement collecté in situ par Wilhel.

KUPE'E PALAOA, BRACELET DE CHEF, Hawaii, Polynésie, XVIIIe - début XIXe siècle, Dent de cachalot, 3 x 6,5 x 4,5 cm. Finch & Co, Londres , 10, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Finch & Co

Provenance : Ex collection J. Timmermans, Bruxelles
Ex collection P. Mestdagh.

MASQUE SATIMBE, Dogon, Mali, XIXe siècle, Bois sculpté, H. : 98 cm. Galerie Flak, 8, rue des Beaux-Arts.© Danielle Voirin

HOCHET DE CHAMANE, Tlingit, Colombie-Britannique (Côte nord-ouest), Canada, XIXe siècle, Bois sculpté, pigments, cuir, H. : 30,5 cm. Galerie Flak, 8, rue des Beaux-Arts. © Stan Schnier

Provenance : ex-collection Jacques Kerchache vers 1965 ; ex-collection Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan ; ex-Christie's New York, 8 juin 1995.
Publié dans Art Primitif - Amérique du Nord, Galerie Jacques Kerchache, 1965, pl. 27.
Exposé dans Amérique du Nord, Galerie Jacques Kerchache, 19 novembre-19 décembre 1965.

SCULPTURE YIPWON, Fleuve Korewori, Papouasie Nouvelle Guinée, XIXe / début XXe siècle, Bois, pigment, 41,5 x 105,5 cm. Bruce Frank Primitive Art, New York, 40, rue Mazarine. © Bruce Frank Primitive Art

Provenance : Everett Rassiga, New York
Collection Emily and Paul Wingert, New Jersey, acquis du précédent en 1966.

MASQUE GU FÉMININ, Peuple Gouro méridional, XIXe-début du XXe siècle, Bois, pigments, H. : 35 cm. Galerie Patrik Fröhlich, Zürich, 3, rue Visconti.© Museum Fünf Kontinente München.

Lot 829. A small brown-glazed ribbed jar, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 4 ¼ in. (10.7 cm.) high. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The globular body is raised on a slightly splayed foot and the neck is flanked by two strap handles. The sides are applied with four groups of two slender lines of creamy-white slip to form raised, vertical ribs. The jar is covered inside and out with a brownish-black glaze suffused with yellowish-russet mottling which stops above the unglazed foot, and thins to a brownish color at the edges, Japanese double wood box.

Lot 832. A polychrome-decorated Cizhou 'Fish' bowl, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); 7 in. (17.8 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The bowl has rounded conical sides covered in white slip under a clear glaze on the interior and exterior where it falls short of the foot in an irregular line, and is decorated on the interior in red and green overglaze enamels with a fish swimming amidst lotus below linear borders of red and green color, the red band dotted in yellow glaze. The exterior is painted in red ink with three large indecipherable characters, cloth box.

Lot 833. A rare inscribed Cizhou cut-glaze meiping, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); 7 in. (17.8 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 4,000 - USD 6,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The tapering ovoid body is carved through the brown glaze to the buff ground with a twenty-character poetic inscription describing an experience that occurred while drinking, and with an additional poem on the reverse, all between double-line borders, Japanese wood box inscribed by Hirota Fukkosai (1897-1973), the founder of Kochukyo.

Japanese wood box inscribed by Hirota Fukkosai (1897-1973), the founder of Kochukyo.

Provenance: Kochukyo, Tokyo.

Lot 834. A Cizhou white glazed pear-shaped vase, yuhuchunping, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 7 in. (17.8 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The vase has a tapering ovoid body rising to the slender, waisted neck and flared mouth rim, and is covered in a white slip under a clear glaze that falls short of the thick, slightly flared foot. The lower body and base bear illegible inscriptions in black ink, Japanese wood box.

Japanese wood box.

Christie's. Masterpieces of Cizhou Ware: The Linyushanren Collection Part IV. New York, 13 September 2018

BALE.- Avec l’exposition Balthus, la Fondation Beyeler présente l’un des derniers grands maîtres de l’art du 20ème siècle, également l’un des artistes les plus singuliers et les plus controversés de l’art moderne. Cette présentation d’envergure, dont la planification a débuté en milieu d’année 2016, prend pour point de départ l’œuvre majeure Passage du Commerce-Saint-André (1952–1954), qui se trouve à la Fondation Beyeler depuis de nombreuses années en tant que prêt permanent d’une importante collection privée suisse.

BASEL.- With its Balthus exhibition, the Fondation Beyeler presents one of the last great masters of twentieth-century art, and also one of modern art’s most singular and controversial exponents. This extensive presentation, which has been in planning since mid-2016, takes as its starting point Balthus’ key work Passage du Commerce - Saint - André (1952–1954), which has been on permanent loan from a major Swiss private collection to the Fondation Beyeler for many years. 

Balthus, Passage du Commerce - Saint - André, 1952–1954. Huile sur toile, 294 x 330 cm, Collection privée © Balthus. Photo : Mark Niedermann.

Dans son travail aux facettes et aux lectures multiples, vénéré par certains et rejeté par d’autres, Balthus, de son vrai nom Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (1908–2001), trace une voie artistique alternative, voire opposée aux courants des avant-gardes modernes et des représentations que l’on peut s’en faire. Dans cette voie solitaire, le peintre excentrique se réfère à un large éventail de prédécesseurs et de traditions artistiques allant de Piero della Francesca à Poussin, Füssli, Courbet et Cézanne. Mais un examen plus attentif révèle aussi les impulsions de certains courants artistiques modernes, notamment la Nouvelle Objectivité ou le Surréalisme, qui offrent un contexte aux stratégies parfois provocatrices de mise en scène picturale de Balthus et aux dimensions abyssales et insondables de son art. Sa distanciation fondamentale du modernisme, démarche que l’on peut presque qualifier de postmoderne, mène pourtant Balthus à développer une forme toute personnelle d’avant-garde, qui apparaît d’autant plus pertinente aujourd’hui. Balthus s’affirme en effet comme l’artiste de la contradiction et du trouble, dont les œuvres à la fois sereines et fébriles font se rencontrer des contraires qui mêlent de manière unique la réalité et le rêve, l’érotisme et la candeur, l’objectivité et le mystère, le familier et l’étrange. Dans ce jeu de contrastes, Balthus combine des motifs de la tradition artistique à des éléments empruntés aux illustrations populaires de livres pour enfants du 19ème siècle. Ses tableaux sont empreints d’ironie tant implicite qu’explicite, réfléchissant et s’interrogeant par là sur les possibilités et les impossibilités figuratives et esthétiques de l’art du 20ème siècle et au-delà. Les paradoxes s’étendent aussi à la personne de Balthus, qui dans un geste de modestie tenait àêtre considéré comme un « artisan » tout en adoptant la posture et le statut de l’aristocrate intellectuel cultivant des liens étroits avec de grands philosophes, écrivains, gens de théâtre et cinéastes de son temps. Sa longue vie, qui a coïncidé avec la quasi-totalité du 20ème siècle, a ainsi oscillé constamment entre ascèse et mondanité.

Balthus, La rue, 1933. Huile sur toile, 195 x 240 cm, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Légué par James Thrall Soby © Balthus. Photo: © 2018. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence.

With his multifaceted and ambiguous oeuvre, which has prompted both reverence and rejection, Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (1908–2001), known as Balthus, pursued an artistic path running distinct from, or even counter to, the currents of modernist avant-gardes and our established notions thereof. On this solitary path, the eccentric painter drew on a number of art historical traditions and predecessors, ranging from Piero della Francesca to Poussin, Füssli, Courbet and Cézanne. Yet closer consideration also reveals some affinities with modern artistic movements, namely the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) and Surrealism. These provide a context in which to view Balthus’ at times provocative images and their cryptic and unfathomable quality. Yet with his fundamental dissociation from modernism, which might almost be termed postmodern, he developed his very own form of avant-garde, which appears all the more contemporary today. Balthus is an artist of contradiction and disturbance. In his paintings, both serene and tense, opposites meet, uniquely blending the real and the dreamlike, the erotic and the candid, the matterof-fact and the enigmatic, the familiar and the uncanny. Playing with these contrasts, Balthus combined traditional artistic motifs with elements derived from illustrations in popular nineteenth-century children’s books. His images are infused with irony, both explicit and implicit, which is one of the ways they reflect and question the representational and aesthetic possibilities and impossibilities of art in the 20th century and beyond. Balthus himself was defined by paradox. As an artist, in a gestus of modesty, he sought to be viewed as a “craftsman”, while at the same time adopting the stance and status of an intellectual aristocrat nurturing close relationships with leading philosophers, writers, theatre professionals and filmmakers of his day. His long life, which spanned almost the entire 20th century, thus continuously shifted between asceticism and worldliness. 

Balthus, Le roi des chats, 1935. Huile sur toile, 78 x 49,7 cm, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, Donation de la Fondation Balthus Klossowski de Rola, 2016 © Balthus. Photo: Etienne Malapert, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne.

L’artiste entretenait des liens étroits avec la Suisse. Il a passé son enfance à Berne, Genève et Beatenberg, épousé la Bernoise Antoinette de Watteville et vécu avec elle en Suisse romande et alémanique. Les dernières décennies de sa vie ont eu pour cadre l’imposant Grand Chalet à Rossinière. Depuis les années 1930, une profonde amitié le liait par ailleurs à Alberto Giacometti, artiste pour lequel Balthus avait la plus haute estime.

L’exposition rétrospective de la Fondation Beyeler est la première qu’un musée suisse consacre à Balthus depuis dix ans. C’est aussi la première présentation d’envergure de son travail en Suisse alémanique. L’exposition réunit 40 tableaux clé de toutes les phases de sa carrière, des années 1920 aux années 1990. À travers cette sélection, c’est pour ainsi dire la quintessence de l’œuvre de Balthus que découvrira le visiteur, fruit d’une carrière très longue qui n’aura pourtant produit que quelque 350 travaux.

The artist had close ties to Switzerland. He spent his childhood years in Bern, Geneva and Beatenberg, his first wife Antoinette de Watteville was Bernese, and together they lived in both French- and Germanspeaking Switzerland. The last decades of his life were spent in the imposing Grand Chalet in Rossinière. In the 1930s, he became close friends with Alberto Giacometti, whose art he greatly admired. 

The Fondation Beyeler’s retrospective is the first exhibition devoted to Balthus by a Swiss museum in a decade and the first-ever extensive presentation of his work in German-speaking Switzerland. Featuring 40 key paintings from all periods of the artist’s career, from the 1920s to the 1990s, it seeks to convey the very essence of an oeuvre that, though spanning a long period of time, comprises no more than some 350 pictures. 

Balthus, Les enfants Blanchard, 1937. Huile sur toile, 125 x 130 cm, Musée national Picasso-Paris, Donation des héritiers de Picasso, 1973/1978 © Balthus. Photo: RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) / Mathieu Rabeau.

Parmi les temps forts de l’exposition figurent entre autres des toiles telles La Rue (1933), scène de rue parisienne avec des figures mystérieuses paraissant comme figées dans leurs poses sur une scène de théâtre. Cette suspension qui frappe les actions des personnages dans les œuvres de Balthus est aussi apparente dans Les Enfants Blanchard (1937), acquis en 1941 par Pablo Picasso, avec lequel Balthus entretenait une relation amicale. La Jupe blanche (1937) est probablement le plus beau portrait réalisé par Balthus de sa première épouse Antoinette de Watteville. Le Roi des chats (1935) est un rare autoportrait dans lequel Balthus, alors âgé de 27 ans, se figure avec un maintien assuré sous les traits d’un dandy élégant accompagné d’un chat. Les chats jouent un rôle important dans la vie et dans l’œuvre de Balthus: ils apparaissent régulièrement dans ses tableaux, souvent en tant qu’alter ego de l’artiste. Avec La Partie de cartes (1948–1950), toile rarement prêtée, l’exposition présente une œuvre à la tension ensorcelante. Le portrait Thérèse rêvant (1938), qui a récemment fait l’objet d’une attention internationale, fait également partie de l’exposition. C’est l’un des exemples les plus précoces et célèbres des représentations caractéristiques de Balthus de jeunes filles au seuil de l’âge adulte, qui recèlent une tension difficile à cerner entre insouciance enfantine et érotisme séducteur. Le monumental Passage du Commerce-SaintAndré (1952–1954) condense de manière particulièrement forte le souci intense du peintre de rendre visibles les dimensions de l’espace et du temps et de révéler leur rapport avec les figures et les objets – aspects fondamentaux de son art.

Balthus, La jupe blanche, 1937. Oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. Private collection, private collection © Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG. Image: Thomas Ammann Fine Art.

Highlights of the exhibition include paintings such as La Rue (1933), a Parisian street scene in which enigmatic figures appear as if frozen in their poses on a theatre stage. This standstill to which movements and activities appear to have been brought in Balthus’ works also becomes apparent in Les Enfants Blanchard (1937), which was acquired in 1941 by Pablo Picasso, a friend of the artist. La Jupe blanche (1937) is probably the most beautiful portrait painted by Balthus of his first wife Antoinette de Watteville. Le Roi des chats (1935) is a rare self-portrait, which shows the 27-year-old Balthus as a poised and elegant dandy with a cat at his feet. Cats played an important role in Balthus’ life and work, repeatedly appearing in his paintings, often as the artist’s alter ego. La Partie de cartes (1948–1950), a rare loan, is a particularly unnerving work. The exhibition also features Thérèse rêvant (1938), which has recently been the focus of much international attention. It is one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Balthus’ characteristic depictions of young girls on the threshold to adulthood, which harbour an elusive tension between childlike insouciance and seductive eroticism. The monumental Passage du Commerce - Saint André (1952–1954) condenses to a particular degree fundamental aspects of Balthus’ art – his farreaching, intensely probing engagement with visualising the dimensions of space and time and their relation to figures and objects.

Balthus, Thérèse rêvant, 1938. Oil on canvas, 149.9 x 129.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998 © Balthus, Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource / Scala, Florence

Présentées dans le cadre de la Fondation Beyeler, les œuvres de Balthus apparaissent comme les représentantes d’un modernisme qu’on pourrait dire « autre » tant elles opèrent en véritable contrepoint à la notion de modernisme qui a guidé Ernst et Hildy Beyeler dans leur activité de collectionneurs. Elles élargissent et complètent ainsi d’une certaine façon la vision de l’art moderne que propose notre musée. Bien que Balthus ne soit pas représenté dans la collection du couple Beyeler, plusieurs œuvres importantes de l’artiste ont été vendues ou entremises par leur galerie, dont la scandaleuse et légendaire Leçon de guitare (1934), Jeune fille à la fenêtre (1957) et la version des Trois Sœurs peinte en 1964. 

Seen in the context of their presentation at the Fondation Beyeler, Balthus’ works officiate as representatives of an “other” modernism and offer a veritable counterpoint to the conception of modernism that guided the collecting activity of Ernst and Hildy Beyeler. As such, they expand and complement the vision of modern art conveyed by our museum. Though Balthus is not represented in the Beyelers’ collection, several major works of the artist were sold by or via the Beyelers’ gallery, among them the legendarily scandalous La Leçon de guitare (1934), Jeune fille à la fenêtre (1957) and the 1964 version of Les Trois Sœurs.  

Balthus, Thérèse, 1938. Huile sur carton sur bois, 100.3 x 81.3 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Légué par Mr. et Mrs. Allan D. Emil, en l’honneur de William S. Lieberman, 1987 © Balthus, Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence.

Exposer Balthus est un défi particulier pour un musée. Aujourd’hui encore, l’artiste est fréquemment associéà ses représentations de jeunes filles et de jeunes femmes qui continuent à provoquer parfois un certain malaise chez les spectateurs et à susciter des débats sur les limites de la représentation artistique. En novembre 2017, l’importante toile Thérèse rêvant (1938) a provoqué un scandale public au Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York lorsqu’une pétition lancée en ligne a exigé son décrochage ou sa recontextualisation en raison des connotations érotiques de l’image. Malgré l’écho important rencontré par la pétition, le Metropolitan Museum a décidé de laisser en place l’œuvre contestée. En pleine controverse, le tableau nous parvient donc aujourd’hui sous de nouveaux auspices en tant que symbole d’un débat culturel ravivé.

A Balthus exhibition presents a museum with special challenges. To this day, the artist is often associated with his depictions of young girls and women, eliciting unease and triggering debates about the limits of art and representation. In November 2017, Balthus’ major painting Thérèse rêvant (1938) caused a public outcry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York when an online petition demanded for the picture to be removed from view or recontextualised on account of its erotic connotations. Despite widespread support for the petition, the museum decided to leave the contentious work on display. In the midst of this controversy, the painting is now reaching us under new auspices as the symbol of a newly ignited cultural debate. 

Balthus, Le cerisier, 1940. Huile sur bois, 92 x 72,9 cm, Roman Family London © Balthus.

La présente rétrospective Balthus doit elle aussi être l’occasion d’un débat et d’une réflexion sur les possibilités et les fonctions de l’art. L’art est tout particulièrement porteur d’ambiguïté et de perspectives multiples sur le monde. Par-delà le bon et le beau, cela inclut également les aspects insondables, déroutants, déplaisants ou provocateurs de l’imaginaire et de la condition humaine dans sa vérité. Cette complexité et cette richesse qui sont non seulement celles de l’art mais celles du monde en général, c’est précisément aux musées qu’il incombe de les explorer et d’en être les médiateurs critiques, afin d’inciter le spectateur à l’exercice de la pensée et du questionnement. Dans ses multiples facettes, l’œuvre de Balthus apporte une contribution importante à cette dimension réflexive essentielle de l’art en tant que forme d’expression libre. 

This Balthus retrospective also seeks to foster discussion and reflection on the possibilities and the functions of art. Art operates in the realm of ambiguity. It provides a plurality of perspectives, which go beyond the good and the beautiful to encompass such equally valid aspects of human existence and imagination as the unfathomable, the unconventional, the disturbing and the provocative. It falls to museums in particular to explore and critically mediate this complexity of both art and the world as such in order to encourage viewers to reflect and question things. In its very intricacy and multidimensionality, Balthus’ work makes an important contribution to the essential reflexive dimension of art as a free form of expression. 

Balthus, Le goûter, 1940. Oil on cardboard on wood, 72.9 x 92.8 cm. Tate, Legacy Simon Sainsbury 2006, acquired in 2008 © Balthus. Image: Tate, London 2017

L’exposition est accompagnée d’un important programme de médiation artistique qui inclut entre autres une table ronde réunissant des intervenants de haut niveau et des visites guidées spéciales le dimanche suivies de discussions. Un mur de commentaires dans le musée présentera les voix de défenseurs et de détracteurs de Balthus et permettra aussi aux visiteurs d’y exprimer leur opinion. Dans les salles d’exposition, des médiateurs artistiques se tiendront à la disposition du public pour dialoguer. 

The exhibition is framed by a comprehensive art mediation programme, featuring among others a distinguished panel discussion and special Sunday tours offering room for conversation. A comments wall will display pro and contra voices, and also allow visitors to express their opinion. Art mediators will be present in the exhibition spaces and can be called upon directly by visitors.  

Balthus, Le salon (I), 1941-1943. Oil on canvas, 113 x 146.7 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, The John R. Van Derlip Fund and The William Hood Dunwoody Fund © Balthus. Image: Bridgeman Images

Pour réaliser cette grande rétrospective, la Fondation Beyeler a pu s’assurer un grand nombre de prêts inestimables de musées au rayonnement international dont le Metropolitan Museum of Art et le Museum of Modern Art à New York, le Centre Pompidou à Paris, le Hirshhorn Museum à Washington et la Tate à Londres. De nombreuses œuvres majeures en provenance de collections privées européennes, américaines et asiatiques, auxquelles le public n’a normalement pas ou peu accès, feront pour certaines leur première apparition en public. L’exposition est placée sous le commissariat de Dr Raphaël Bouvier, conservateur, et Michiko Kono, conservatrice adjointe. 

To put together this extensive retrospective, the Fondation Beyeler was able to secure numerous valuable loans from major international museums, among which the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington and the Tate in London. Many significant works from European, American and Asian private collections, never or rarely seen, will for some be on public view for the first time. The exhibition is curated by Dr Raphaël Bouvier, Curator, and Michiko Kono, Associate Curator.  

Balthus, La partie de cartes, 1948-1950. Huile sur toile, 139.7 x 193.7 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Balthus. 

Le catalogue de l’exposition, publié par Hatje Cantz, propose des textes instructifs des historiens de l’art Olivier Berggruen, Yves Guignard et Juan Ángel López-Manzanares portant sur la vie et l’œuvre de l’artiste. À noter également, un texte personnel du cinéaste et photographe Wim Wenders, qu’une amitiéétroite liait à Balthus et à sa famille. Beate Söntgen, professeure d’histoire de l’art, consacre un article aux représentations de jeunes filles de Balthus. C’est également sur ce sujet largement débattu que se penche le texte de Michiko Kono, qui traite des figures féminines dans les œuvres de Balthus. Raphaël Bouvier discute dans son article des divers aspects de la dimension temporelle qui s’ouvrent dans la conception artistique de Balthus et auxquels il donne forme dans l’ensemble de son œuvre. 

The exhibition catalogue, published by Hatje Cantz, contains insightful essays on the artist’s life and work by art historians Olivier Berggruen, Yves Guignard and Juan Ángel López-Manzanares. Of special note is a personal essay by filmmaker and photographer Wim Wenders, a close friend of Balthus and his family. Beate Söntgen, professor of art history, writes about Balthus’ paintings of girls. This much-debated topic is also the focus of Michiko Kono’s text, which deals with the female figure in Balthus’ paintings. Raphaël Bouvier considers the manifold aspects of time contained and made visible in Balthus’ artistic conception and output.  

Balthus, Le chat au miroir III, 1989-1994. Huile sur toile, 220 x 195 cm, Collection privée, l‘Asie  © Balthus. 

La rétrospective Balthus est réalisée en coopération avec le Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza de Madrid, l’un des plus prestigieux musées d’Espagne. L’exposition y sera montrée sous forme légèrement différente en début d’année prochaine. 

This Balthus retrospective was developed in cooperation with one of Spain’s most renowned museums, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, which will show a modified version of the exhibition early next year.

Balthus, 1948. Photo: Irving Penn © The Irving Penn Foundation.

Lot 836. A large Cizhou white glazed basin, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 11 ¼ in. (28.7 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The basin has thick, deep sides that rise to an outward canted rim, and is covered with white slip and a glaze of ivory tone that continues over the rim and ends in a slightly irregular line on the exterior above the unglazed lower body that tapers to the unglazed foot ring and unglazed base to expose the fine granular ware. The base is inscribed in black ink with a mostly illegible inscription, cloth box.

Lot 839. A very rare Cizhou polychrome-glazed and sgraffiato censer, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234); 2 ¾ in. (7 cm.) high. Estimate 2,500 - USD 3,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

The deep, cylindrical-form body is raised on a spreading pedestal foot carved with radiating grooves, and is covered on the exterior with a wash of olive-green glaze decorated in green with four leaf sprays below the everted rim carved on top with a band of demi-florets picked out in green and cream on an amber ground within an outer border of pale yellow color. The edges are glazed green, Japanese wood box.