Lot 3008. Shen Zhou (1427-1509), Listening to the Waterfall. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk, 120 x 60.5 cm. (47 1/4 x 23 7/8 in.). Inscribed with a poem and signed, with one seal of the artist. Inscription on the cover and interior of the wooden box by Kuwana Tetsujo (1864-1938), signed with one seal. Estimate HK$3,000,000 - HK$5,000,000 ($194,074 - $258,765). Price Realized HK$3,640,000 ($470,953). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.
Literature: Zheng Zhenduo ed., Chinese Classical Paintings Collection in Overseas VI: Ming Paintings Part I, Shanghai, 1947, pl. 33.
Kuwana Tetsujo ed., Paintings Catalogue of the Kyuka Inshitsu Kanzo Garoku (Part I), 1920.
Tajima Shiichi ed., Great Oriental Art: XI, Shinbi Shoin, Tokyo, 5 July 1911.
“Living in the city, craving for the sound of the waterfall.
Not found in the city, but running in the mountains.
Always listening, as if the waterfall is close to the ears.
Yet it is far away in reality.
The heart is with the waterfall, far away in a remote area.
With a tiny voice from the heart, the sound of the waterfall is always there. “
– Listening to the Waterfall, Shen Zhou
In this painting, Shen Zhou inscribed a seven-character poem expressing his inner search for the sounds of the waterfall. This poem, together with the foregoing five-character poem by the artist, highlight his quest for eternal tranquility.
One of the Four Masters of the Ming dynasty, Shen Zhou, like the remaining masters Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Qiu Ying, was a native of Suzhou. Since Suzhou was known as Wu in ancient times, they are also regarded as the Four Masters of the Wu School. In the late Ming period, the Wu School started flourishing and became the mainstream of Chinese paintings, specifically landscapes.
The Japanese have been very fond of collecting Chinese classical paintings and calligraphy and Listening to the Waterfall was previously in the collection of Kuwana Tetsujo (1864-1938), master of Kyuka Inshitsu Kanzo Garoku. A native of Toyama, Kuwana studied Sinology and calligraphy from a young age and then travelled to Totomi where he practiced swordsmanship at the school founded by Yamaoka Tesshu. After that he moved to Kanazawa to study seal carving and epigraphy. During the Meiji period Kuwana travelled to China where he met with the scholars in Suzhou and Hangzhou and bought many seal books of archaic bronzes.
According to Kuwana’s inscriptions on the inside cover of the wooden box for this painting, he bought Listening to the Waterfall in 1896 while travelling in China. He was very pleased by his purchase and showed it to his friends. In 1929, the painting was sold by Kuwana to Sumitomo Kanichi (1896-1956), whose collection of Chinese paintings and calligraphy can be found in Sen-oku Hakuko Kan in Japan.
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Shen Zhou (1427-1509), "Self-portrait at age 80", Palace Museum, Beijing.
Shen Zhou (沈周, 1427–1509), courtesy name Qinan (启南), was a Chinese painter in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). He was born into an honored and wealthy family in Changzhou (長洲), which is modern Suzhou (蘇州) in the south of Jiangsu province. Shen Zhou never took up any official post, but instead enjoyed a long life involved in the learned arts of poetry, painting, and calligraphy.
Shen Zhou’s many paintings reveal an active concern with preserving the aesthetic discoveries of bygone ages as well as a similar concern with nature in its many manifestations (especially landscapes). However various in stylistic source and subject matter, Shen Zhou’s art consistently bears his unique touch of an abiding confidence, restrained calmness, and subtle warmth. The ideal of his life and the accomplishments of his art have earned him reverence by all artists devoted to the ideals of the literati (wenren, 文人) tradition. He is regarded as one of the painting elite – “the Four Masters of Ming” (明四家), which also includes Wen Zhengming (文徵明), Tang Yin (唐寅) and Qiu Ying (仇英).
Shen Zhou lived at a pivotal point in the history of Chinese painting. He contributed greatly to the artistic tradition of China, founding the new Wu School in Suzhou. Under the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), painters had practiced with relative freedom, cultivating a more “individualist” and innovative approach to art that deviated noticeably from the more superficial style of the Song court artists who preceded them. However, at the outset of the Ming, the Hongwu Emperor (reigned 1368-1398) decided to import the existing master painters to his court in Nanjing, where he had the ability to cultivate their styles to conform to the paintings of the Song masters. As Hongwu was notorious for his attempts to marginalize and persecute the scholar class, this was seen as an attempt to banish the gentry’s influence from the arts. The dominant style of the Ming court painters was called the Zhe School, as the leading figure – Dai Jin (戴進, 1389-1462) – and many of his followers were from Zhejiang province. However, following the ascension of the Yongle Emperor (reigned 1402-1424), the capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing, putting a large distance between imperial influence and the city of Suzhou. These new conditions led to the rise of the Wu School of painting, a somewhat subversive style that revived the ideal of the inspired scholar-painter in Ming China.
Shen Zhou’s scholarly upbringing and artistic training had instilled in him a reverence for China’s historical tradition that influenced both his life and his art from an early age. Magnanimous by nature, he was an able poet, essayist, calligrapher, as well as an excellent painter. His work is unsurpassed in all Chinese art for its humane feeling; the gentle and unpretentious figures he introduced give his paintings great appeal. Shen Zhou commanded a wide range of styles and techniques, on which he impressed his warm and vigorous personality. In landscape, he often painted in the manner of the Yuan masters, but his interpretations are more clearly structured and firmer in brushwork. It is said that Shen Zhou mainly followed the Yuan painter Wang Meng (王蒙, 1308–1385) before 40. After 40, he followed the styles of Huang Gongwang (黃公望, 1269-1354), and then Wu Zhen (吳鎮, 1280-1354). Shen Zhou once acquired the famous Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains by Huang Gongwang. After it was stolen, he painted a new scroll based on his memory.
Although best known for his landscapes, Shen Zhou was equally talented in depicting flowers, fruits and vegetables, and animals in monochrome ink. He also became the first to establish among the literati painters a flower painting tradition. Shen Zhou’s flower-and-bird paintings, executed in the “sketching ideas (xieyi 寫意)” style, were followed with greater technical versatility by Chen Chun (陳淳, 1483-1544) and Xu Wei (徐渭, 1521-1593) in the Ming and then by Shitao (石濤, 1642-1707) and Zhu Da (朱耷, 1626-1705) of the early Qing. Their work, in turn, served as the basis for the revival of flower-and-bird painting in the late 19th and the 20th century.
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