A FINE AND RARE SMALL CHINESE CELADON JADE BOULDER

A FINE AND RARE SMALL CHINESE CELADON JADE BOULDER
17TH/18TH CENTURY

Depicting a lone scholar gazing up towards a steep cliff face, the elderly gentleman contentedly enjoying the scenery, with pine trees and smaller shrubs growing in the rocky landscape, the reverse carved with a waterfall crashing down the cliff, the russet markings in the greenish stone cleverly used within the design, 12.7cm.

Provenance: formerly a western private collection; and then the Lawrence Collection of jades and hardstone carvings, purchased from Roger Keverne Limited on 18th December 2008. A copy of the invoice is available.

Published: R Keverne, Winter Exhibition 2008, pp.96-97, no.76.

The subject on this carving is inspired by traditional Chinese landscape painting. The Chinese word for 'landscape painting' is shanshui, literally translating as 'mountains and water'. Landscape painting has long held an important position in Chinese art, but its principles were not applied to three-dimensional jade carvings until the early Qing dynasty. Landscape painting was not only valued as a means of expressing an admiration of nature, but also as a way of representing the philosophical relationship between man and the natural world. As is typical in landscape painting, the figure on this jade boulder is presented as a passive spectator within the free and undomesticated vastness of the natural setting.

Cf. L Chang, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, pp.158-159, no.48 for a similar example in the collection of the National Palace Museum; see also Schätze Chinas aus Museen der DDR, pp.242-243, no.138 and Tianjin Shi Yishu Bowuguan Cang Yu, no.226 for further comparable pieces; see also R Keverne, Jade, p.352, fig.3 for another related item.

十七/十八世紀 青白玉雕高士圖山子

來源：西方私人舊藏，勞倫斯珍藏玉石，2008年12月18日購於Roger Keverne古董店（附發票複印件）。

出版：R Keverne, Winter Exhibition 2008, 頁96-97, 編號76。