Sightings: Birds in Chinese & Japanese Painting

Zhao Ji [Chao Chi] 伝鷲佶徽宗
(1082-1135)
Reigned as the Huizong emperor
(1100-1125)

“Imperial Eagle” 御鷹圖

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
120.0 x 53.0 cm. (47 1/4 x 20 3/4 in.)

Inscription by Cai Cao (d. after 1147), son of Prime Minister Cai Jing (1046-1126); poem, much damaged and over-written, signed “Cai Cao, Grand Academician of the Xuanhe Palace.”

Published: Kase Toho: “Dreaming of a White Eagle,” Geijutsu Shincho, no. 292, 1974.

Huichong [Hui-ch’ung] 伝惠崇
(965?-1017) attributed;
Painting early 13th century

“Wild Geese Descending on Sandbar”
平沙落雁圖

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
53.5 x 26.0 cm. (21 1/8 x 10 1/4 in.)

Published: Tokugawa Art Museum: Basara no Jidai—Ocho-jidai no Zansho, Kinsei no Ibuki, Nagoya, 1991, pl. 8, p. 20 (identified as a Southern Song painting of the 13th century).

Anonymous Chinese 無款中國
(13th-14th century)
(old attribution to Li Di 舊傳李廸 )

“Eagle on Winter Branch” 冬鷲圖

Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk
153.3 x 82.5 cm. (60 3/8 x 32 1/2 in.)

Inscription: “Li Di painted this in front of the Emperor.”

Anonymous Chinese 無款中國
(13th century)

“Three Sparrows on Blossoming Plum”
梅花三雀圖

Fan painting, ink and color on silk
27.8 x 20.3 cm. (11 x 8 in.)

Collectors seals: Chenpu yin; Zhenzhai

Ding Wenxian [Ting Wen-hsien] 丁文暹
(active mid-15th century)

“Mandarin Ducks & Sparrow Under Willow” 鴛鴦圖

Hanging scroll, ink on silk
152.0 x 62.0 cm. (60 x 24 1/2 in.)

Inscription: “Wenxian painted this for Yidao.”

Artist’s seal: One, illegible

Anonymous Chinese 無款中國
(15th century)

“Ducks in Reeds” 蘆雁圖

Hanging scroll, ink on silk
130.5 x 69.0 (51 3/8 x 27 1/4 in.)

Collectors seals: Two, illegible

Anonymous Chinese 無款中國
(15th-16th century)

“Pheasants on Rock Beneath Bamboo”
岩竹雙雉子圖

Hanging scroll, ink on silk
141.0 x 77.5 cm. (55 1/2 x 30 1/2 in.)

Chen Zihe [Ch’en Tzu-ho] 陳子和
(late 15th-16th century)

“Geese & Reeds in Moonlight” 芦雁圖

Hanging scroll, ink on silk
157.0 x 90.0 cm. (61 3/4 x 35 1/2 in.)

Inscription: “Chen Zihe.”

Artist’s seal: Pucheng Chen Xaixian in (“Seal of the Untrammeled Immortal Chen from Pucheng”)

Box inscription:
”After (Tokugawa) Keiki (1837-1913), the Chūnagon from Hitosubashi, stayed in the Goten residence (in Higashi Honganji), he sent greetings and offered this present. Written during the third lunar month of the year 1863 of the Bunkyū era (1861-1863).”

Provenance:
Tokugawa Keiki (1837-1913)
Higashi Honganji, Kyoto
Private collection: Bouasse-Lebel

Published:
Objets d’Art d’Extreme Orient (catalogue of auction at the Hotel Drouot), 1949, lot 478.