Pu Quan Lot n° 63

Pu Quan (1913-1991). Landscape at the water, before rocks on boat kneeling figure with fishing rod. Drawing. Colored ink on paper. At the right side with the cachet Song Chuang Ju Shi in red. 34:42 cm. Provenance: Fritz van Briessen. - Reprod. in: F. van Briessen, Chinesische Maltechnik, Cologne 1963, ills. 76, published in cooperation with Pu Quan, member of the imperial family, descendant of Emperor Daoguang (Tao Kuang) and cousin of the last Chinese Emperor Pu Yi. Selection and publication of the drawings confirm their availability in the West as early as the early 1960s; export permission from China would not be expected today. - F. van Briessen comments on the present sheet on page 108: "A separate style group whose main colour is indigo is called indigo style. In the finished ink base, a very dull lavis in umber brown is first laid. In some places, however, this lavis in umber brown is replaced by a lavis in indigo already in the first layer. Sky and water are laid down quite lightly in indigo... . Within a tint more or less determined by indigo, the jetty, the boat and the human face finally receive a tone of umber brown plus ink. Finally, a very fine lavis of indigo is laid over the whole picture once more."