2022.36: Landscape after Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2022.36

People

Dong Qichang 董其昌, Chinese (1555 - 1636)

Title

Landscape after Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan

Other Titles

Original Language Title: 董香光畫山水 時与陳眉公同舟

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting, handscroll

Date

1599

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China

Period

Ming dynasty, 1368-1644

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/78048

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Handscroll; ink on paper

Dimensions

painting proper: H. 32.3 × L. 359.6 cm (12 11/16 × 141 9/16 in.)
mounting: H. 33.3 cm (13 1/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: by the artist; at the end of painting proper:
  
  
  岡嵐屈曲徑交加, 新作茆堂窄亦佳, 手種松杉皆老大, 經年不踏縣門街. 玄宰
  Mountain mists crooked; paths mingled,
  The newly built thatched hut is small but beautiful.
  The pine trees I planted are old,
  For years I have not set foot on the county streets.
  Xuanzai
  
  己亥子月, 泛舟春申之浦, 隨風東西, 與雲朝暮, 集不請之友, 乘不系之舟. 惟吾仲醇, 壺觴對引, 手著翰墨, 固以胸吞具區, 目瞠雲漢矣. 既悟炊粱之晚, 可虛秉燭之遊, 為作此卷, 茲余兩人, 敦此夙好耳.(2)
  In the eleventh month of the jihai year [1599], we were sailing on the Chunshen River [Huangpu River], following the wind from east to west, with the clouds [as our companions] from dawn to dusk. We gathered uninvited friends and boarded onto the unmoored boat. Zhongchun [Chen Jiru] and I were drinking with wine cup and jug, now and again plying our brushes so that my heart could swallow [the scenery of] Juqu, and my eyes could gaze at the Milky Way. It is too late for us to have a “yellow millet dream” [to advance in the world], but we still have time to hold a candle and roam around. This is why I made this scroll. We two engage in this long-time passion.
  
  (Translated by Seung Hee Oh, 2022)
• colophon: by collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904):
  
  
  萬曆己亥董公作畫時年四十五 是時陳仲醇年四十二耳 皆蕭然有物外意 嗣是蹤跡不常合 而翰墨往來無虛 歲迨崇禎甲戌 公年八十矣 尚与仲醇泛舟北郭 觀公書懷素自敘帖 白頭兩鶴伊可羨哉 余少時嘗交遊 服官五十年 放歸而故人都盡 惟吳君儒卿趙君次公 仗履尚健 可為東阡北陌之友 乃數年中先後傾逝 日觀此卷不勝離群索居之感
  光緒癸卯閏五月十三日 松禪老人病起偶題
  When Mr. Dong [Dong Qichang] made this painting in 1599 [the year of jihai of Wanli Reign], he was 45 years of age, and at that time Chen Zhongchun [Chen Jiru 1558–1639] was 42 years of age. Both stayed aloof from earthly attachments. Dong and Chen did not often meet each other in person, but they communicated through their writings, paintings, and calligraphy. In the jiaxu year of the Chongzhen reign [1634], when he was 80 years old, Mr. Dong still went on boating trips with Zhongchun in the northern suburbs outside the [Songjiang] city. On the boat, Chen watched Mr. Dong practicing the Zixutie [Short Narrative] calligraphy of Huaisu (737–799). How jealous am I of the two white-haired cranes [old friends]? In my youth I attempted to make friends. But after returning from fifty years of officialdom my old friends are all gone. Only Wu Ruqing and Zhao Cigong were still healthy and walking with their sticks. They are my friends who live nearby. However, within just a few years, Mr. Wu and Mr. Zhao also passed away, one after another. When I look at this handscroll [by Mr. Dong] during the day, I cannot endure the loneliness of being away from my friends.
  Inscribed by Old Songchan [Weng Tonghe] during his illness, July 7, 1903
  
  (Translated by Yuhua Ding, 2022)
• seal: of the artist; square, intaglio; after the first inscription: 董其昌印 [Dong Qichang yin]
• seal: of collector Zhu Zhichi 朱之赤 (17th century); rectangular, relief; at the beginning of the painting, lower right corner: 朱臥菴收藏印 [Zhu Wo'an shoucang yin]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, intaglio; on silk mounting: 松禪居士 [Songchan jushi]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, relief; on silk mounting: 天放閑人 [Tian fang xianren]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, intaglio; on silk mounting: 翁同龢印 [Weng Tonghe yin]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, relief; on silk mounting: 救虎閣主 [Jiuhu Ge zhu]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, intaglio; on silk mounting: 叔平畫鑑 [Shuping hua jian]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, relief; after colophon: 松禅 [Songchan]
• seal: of collector Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904); square, intaglio; after colophon: 虞山翁同龢印 [Yushan Weng Tonghe yin]
• seal: of collector Wan-go H.C. Weng (1918-2020); rectangular, relief; at the end of painting proper, lower left corner: 翁萬戈鑑賞 [Weng Wange jianshang]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Zhu Zhichi (17th century). Weng Tonghe, China (by 1903), by inheritance; to his son Weng Zhilian, China (1904-1919), by inheritance; to Wan-go H.C. Weng, Lyme, NH (1919-2003), gift; to Ssu Isabel Weng and Hugo I-Hsueh Weng (2003-2022), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2022.

Footnotes:
Zhu Zhichi 朱之赤 (17th century)
Weng Tonghe 翁同龢 (1830–1904)
Weng Zhilian 翁之廉 (1882–1919)
Wan-go H.C. Weng 翁萬戈 (1918–2020)
The artwork was on long term loan to the Harvard Art Museums 2003 to 2022.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Weng Family in memory of Virginia Hwa-pao and Wan-go H.C. Weng

Accession Year

2022

Object Number

2022.36

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

A horizontally oriented landscape, brush painted with black ink on white paper, covers the length of a long handscroll. Pictured at intervals are three groups of distant mountains and three small hills in the foreground, with stretches of water or empty space between them. A few buildings, groves of trees, and other vegetation appear throughout. There are two inscriptions in Chinese characters at the end of the painting, on the far-left side, and an additional inscription has been added to the end of the scroll on a separate piece of paper. Several red seals have been stamped at the beginning and end of the scroll.

Publication History

• James Cahill, ed., The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Period, exh. cat., University Art Museum, Berkeley (Berkeley, California, 1971), Cat. no. 33, pp. 90-95; illustrated on p. 95
• James Cahill, The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644, Weatherhill Inc. (New York, 1982), pp. 92–94, pl. 38
• Wai-kam Ho, ed., The Century of Tung Ch'i-ch'ang, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and University of Washington Press (Seattle, WA, 1992), pp. 22–23, fig. 5
• Yan jiang diezhang tu’ yu Dong Qichang de zhengzhi yinqing 〈煙江疊嶂圖〉與董其昌的政治隱情, Palace Museum Academic Quarterly 故宮學術季刊 (2019), 36, no. 2, p. 30

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 2600 East Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/09/2017 - 12/07/2017; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/04/2023 - 06/03/2024

Verification Level