Woodcutter Receiving a Drink at a Fishing Boat

Maker(s)
Artist: Formerly attributed to Fang Congyi (active 1340-1380)
Historical period(s)
Ming dynasty, 17th century
Medium
Hanging scroll mounted on panel; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
H x W (image): 143.8 x 43.2 cm (56 5/8 x 17 in)
Geography
China
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1918.8
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Hanging scroll (mounted on panel)

Keywords
boat, China, landscape, Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), willow tree, wood-gathering
Provenance

To 1918
Wang Jiantang, Shanghai to 1918 [1]

From 1918 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Wang Jiantang, in New York, in 1918 [2]

From 1920
The Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Kakemono and Makimono List, L. 1290, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Wang Jiantang (C.L. Freer source) late 19th-early 20th century

Label

Having laid aside his carrying pole of bundled twigs and sticks, a wood-gatherer stops at a fishing boat moored by the choppy river and accepts a drink from a barefoot fisherwoman wearing a loose, patched robe. A young child leans back on the deck of the roughly roofed boat, casually observing their interaction. While the destitute condition of these ordinary country folk is neither idealized nor obscured, the potential starkness of their poverty is greatly tempered by the simple human warmth and hospitality of the scene.

The signature at lower right of the Yuan dynasty artist Fang Congyi (active ca. 1340-1380) is forged.

Published References
  • Robert Hans van Gulik. Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur: Notes on the Means and Methods of Traditional Chinese Connoisseurship of Pictorial Art, Based Upon a Study of the Art of Mounting Scrolls in China and Japan.
    . Orientale Roma, vol. 19 Rome. opp. p. 279, fig. 110.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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