Lot 4: Zhu Lunhan Active Circa 1680-1760 , Mansions in a Blue and Green Landscape handscroll, ink and color on silk

depicting an expansive vista with rocky hills and outcrops, punctuated by trees, pavilions and elegant compounds, a mist-shrouded sea to the far left, with an inscription which may be translated: Your servitor; painted with fingers by Zhu Lunhan, bearing a seal handscroll, ink and color on silk

measurements note 12 5/8 by 112 in., 32.1 by 284.5 cm

Chinese Paintings from the Henricksen Collection, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University; Tyler Art Gallery, State University of New York, Oswego, 5th September 2002 - 23rd February 2003, cat. no. 9, illustrated.

PROPERTY FROM THE HENRICKSEN COLLECTION
As Dr. Sewall Oertling notes, Zhu Lunhun, a descendant of the Ming royal family, served the Qing Court. He was the nephew of the renowned 'finger-painter', Gao Qipei, and, influenced by his uncle's mode of painting, Zhu used a fingernail modified as a pen to execute his paintings. The present work, with its combination of aggressive slashing strokes and lyrical touches of color, is likely to have been created using this 'finger[nail]-painting' method together with a brush. Like the previous painting by Su Yi, this handscroll is inspired by the 'Blue and Green' style, giving it an aura of the antique, and evoking a vista suggestive of the realm of the Immortals, where elegant structures punctuate the dramatic landscape. Oertling also suggests this work may have been executed for the court, as Zhu utilizes the character chen (courtier or servant) with his signature (op. cit. pp. 28-29).