SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONUNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUMBulletin 78 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTCATALOGUE OFA SELECTION OF ART OBJECTSFROM THE FREER COLLECTIONEXHIBITED IN THE NEW BUILDINGOF THE NATIONAL MUSEUMAPRIL 15 TO JUNE 15, 1912 WASHINGTONGOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE1912 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONUNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUMBULLETIN 78 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTCATALOGUE OFA SELECTION OF ART OBJECTSFROM THE FREER COLLECTIONEXHIBITED IN THE NEW BUILDINGOF THE NATIONAL MUSEUMAPRIL 15 TO JUNE 15, 1912 fORBB WASHINGTONGOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE1912 CONTENTS. Page.Introductory note SForeword 7Catalogue 9American paintings 9Oriental paintings 10Japanese paintings 10Chronological list of Chinese dynasties 11Chinese paintings 11Miscellaneous oriental objects 14Biographical sketches of the painters 17American painters 17Japanese painters 19Chinese painters 22Index of Painters 393 INTRODUCTORY NOTE.The history of the munificent gift to the Nation, of which aforetaste is permitted through the present exhibition, is, briefly,as follows : In 1904 Mr. Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, Mich., transmittedto the Smithsonian Institution an ofifer to bequeath or makepresent conveyance of title to his extensive art collections tothe Institution or the United States Government, and to furnishthe means for erecting, after his death, a suitable building toreceive them. In his communication Mr. Freer explained that ? These several collections include specimens of very widely separatedperiods of artistic development, beginning before the birth of Christ andending to-day. No attempt has been made to secure specimens from un-sympathetic sources, my collecting having been confined to American andAsiatic schools. My great desire has been to unite modem work with mas-terpieces of certain periods of high civilization harmonious in spiritual andphysical suggestion, having the power to broaden esthetic culture and thegrace to elevate the human mind.These collections I desire to retain during my life for the enjoyment ofstudents, my friends and myself, and for the further purpose of makingadditions and improvements from time to time. Believing that good modelsonly should be used in artistic instruction, I wish to continue my censor-ship, aided by the best expert advice, and remove every undesirable article,and add in the future whatever I can obtain of like harmonious standardquality.This generous proposition was accepted by the Board ofRegents of the Institution at their annual meeting on January24, 1906, in the following terms:The Board of Regents, recognizing the great value to the people of theUnited States of the art collection so generously offered by Mr. Charles L.Freer, of Detroit, Mich. : Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution dohereby accept the tender of Mr. Freer to make present conveyance to theInstitution of the title to his art collection, and to bequeath to the Institu-tion the sum of $500,000 for the construction of a fireproof building in whichto house it, under the terms as stated in his communication to the Presidentof the United States dated December 15, 1905. 5 6 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTAmong the provisions of the conveyance, it is stipulated thatthe sum of money to be bequeathed shall be used in the con-struction and equipment of a fireproof building connected withthe National Museum or reasonably near thereto, according toplans and specifications to be agreed upon ; that the building beused exclusively for storing and exhibiting the objects com-prised in the gift; that provision be made for the convenienceof students and others desirous of an opportunity for uninterrupted study of the objects embraced in the collection; thatspace be provided in which the Peacock Room shall be reerected,and that no charge be made for admission to the building or forthe privilege of examining or studying the objects it contains.The original collection conveyed by a deed of gift on May 5,1906, comprised about 2,250 objects, but the additions sincemade have increased the number to above 4,000. Seven Ameri-can artists are represented by over 1,000 examples, more thanfour-fifths of which are the work of James McNeill Whistler.The oriental part of the collection consists of Chinese and Japa-nese paintings in screens, panels, kakemono, makimono, andalbums; of pottery chiefly from Japan, Korea, China, Persiaand Egypt; of Egyptian glass; and of figures, statuettes, sculpt-ure, mirrors, boxes, etc., in bronze, stone, wood, and lacquer.The special exhibition to which this catalogue relates comprisesonly about 175 of these objects. FOREWORD.There are at the present time two living men at least whoseminds are wide-awake to the world-historical importance oforiental art in its bearing on our cultural development andin its immense fruitfulness of our own art life?Dr. Bode,who is planning to found an Asiatic museum in Berlin, andMr. Charles L. Freer, who has made the American people heirsto the finest existing collection of Chinese art. It is a col-lection broad and universal in scope but at the same time oneof harmony and unity of thought, the same leading motive andpersonal spirit per\^ading the magnificent specimens of Egyp-tian, Mesopotamian, Persian, and far eastern pottery, ancientEgyptian colored glass, Persian and Hindu miniature paintings,and the painting, bronze, and sculpture of China and Japan.And the genius of Whistler, a reincarnation of one of the ancientmasters of the East, soars above these emanations of theoriental world as the spiritual link connecting the Orient andthe Occident.Mr. Freer occupies an exceptional place among collectors.He has never been accumulative, but rather selective in hismethods; with a sincere appreciation of all manifestations ofart and deliberate judgment, he has himself visited the Eastmany times, and in full sympathy w4th oriental peoples, im-bibed a profound understanding of their artistic sentiments andaspirations. Mr. Freer is the only great collector in our countrywho has sought and seized opportunities in China. He wasprivileged to enter the sanctum of many Chinese collectors andconnoisseurs of high standing, and he was fortunate in securingmasterpieces of the most indisputable artistic value. It is inthe American national collection that for the first time our eyesare opened to the choicest specimens of ancient Chinese painting,and the Nation has every reason to look up with pride to thistreasure house and to feel grateful to the man who has become7 8 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART a national benefactor by bringing within the reach of all themessage of the great teachings of eastern art. In their works'of the brush the Chinese have inculcated their finest feelings, andno better means could be found for an appreciation of the truespirit of China than a study of her ancient masters. The Ameri-can national collection now takes the lead in Chinese art andwill form the basis for important research work to be carried onin this line. Whatever the future results of such research maybe, whether the evidence in favor of the authenticity of indi-vidual pieces will be strengthened or to a certain extent modi-fied, this will not detract from the intrinsic value of these preciousdocuments, greater than which no other period in the history ofart can boast. The grand old masters of the T'ang and Sungperiods are restored to life before our eyes and speak to us theirsuave language of murmuring brooks, splashing cascades, glis-tening lakes, and rustling firs and pines. China thus is moreawake for us than ever before, and she is awakened to full lifein the displays of the National Gallery. May the timely eventof a temporary, exhibition of selected art works from thisunique collection signal "The awakening of China" among ourcountrymen and give a new stimulus to our artists and artstudents. Berthold Laufer.Chicago, Illinois, March 24, igi2. CATALOGUE. AMERICAN PAINTINGS.James McNeiIvL Whistler.1. The Isles of Venice (pastel).2. Harmony in Brown and Gold?Old Chelsea Church.3. The Summer Sea.4. Blue and Gray?Unloading.5. A Note in Red.6. An Orange Note?Sweetshop.7. Low Tide.8. Petite Mephiste.9. Purple and Gold?Phryne the Superb, Builder ofTemples.10. A Note in Blue and Opal?The Sun Cloud.11. Green and Gold?The Great Sea.12. Chelsea Shops.13. Little Green Cap.14. Wortley?Note in Green.15. Venus Astarte (pastel).16. Trafalgar Square?Chelsea.17. Blue and Silver?Trouville.18. Symphony in Gray?Early Morning, Thames.19. Rose and Red?The Little Pink Cap (pastel).20. Jeune Femme, dite I'Americaine?Arrangement inBlack and WTiite No. i.21. Portrait of F. R. Leyland.22. Nocturne. Blue and Silver?Bognor.23. Nocturne. Blue and Gold?Valparaiso.24. Nocturne. Blue and Silver?Battersea Reach. 9 10 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTThomas W. Dewing.25. Yellow Tulips.26. The Piano.27. A Lady Playing the Violoncello.28. Pastel No. 20.29. Pastel No. 6.DwiGHT W. Tryon.30. Autumn Day.31. The Sea?Evening.32. Autumn?Morning.33. Early Night (pastel).34. The Sea?Moonlight (pastel).Abbott H. Thayer.35. Monadnock in Winter.36. Diana.37. Capri.WiNSLOW Homer.38. Waterfall in the Adirondacks (water color).ORIENTAL PAINTINGS.JAPANESE PAINTINGS.HoNNAMi KoYETsu. Born 1556?Died 1637.39. Bamboo.40. Rabbits and grasses.41. Stork.42. Birds and waves.43. Flowers.Tawaraya Sotatsu. Flourished 1624 to 1643.44. Waves and island.45. Waves and islands.46. Poppies. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 11Ogata Korin. Bom 1640?Died 1716.47. Garden scene.Ogata Kenzan. Bom 1662?Died 1743.48. Flowers.49. Pine-branch in snow.Yeitoku Kano. Bom 1543?Died 1590.50. Trees in snow.Mori Sosen. Bom 1747?Died 1821.51. Peacock.CHRONOLOGICAL UST OF CHINESE DYNASTIES.Shang 12 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTSigned Pien Luan. T'ang.53. Eagle on rock. Signed Li Lung-mien. Sung.54. Kwanyin. Signed Yen Li-p^n. Flourished 626 to 668. T'ang.55. Flowers. Signed Kuo Hsi. Sung.56. Tall cliflFs and waves. Artist Unknown. School of Wu Tao-tzii.57. Kwan-yin. Signed Ching Hao. T'ang58. Landscape. Signed Li Chao-Tao. T'ang.59. Landscape. Artist Unknown. Sung.60. Lady near pine tree. Signed Hsu Hsi. The Five Dynasties and Sung.61. Two ducks and flowers. After design by Wu Tao-Tzu. T'ang.62. Portrait of Chao-lieh, Emperor of the Shu Han dynasty. Signed Chao Ch'ang. Sung.63. Goose and flowering shrub. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 13Artist Unknown. Sung.64. Landscape with tiger. Signed Ch'e;n So Wung. Sung.65. Dragon. Attributed to Chang Se;ng-yu. Liang.66. Kwan-yin. Tapestry, Ku-su. Sung.66A. Peonies and bird. Attributed to Ma Yuan. Sung.67. Landscape. Signed Liang K'ai. Sung.68. Four figures. Artist Unknown. Sung.69. Landscape with figure. Lin Liang. Flourished 1450 to 1465. Ming.70. 71. Ho-o birds.Artist Unknown. Sung.72. Monkey and trainer.Scroll Paintings.73. Landscape. Signed Li Ssu-hsun. T'ang.74. Landscape. Signed Ma Yiian. Sung.75. Figures. Signed Yen Li-pen. Flourished 626 to 668.T'ang.76. Landscape. In style of Wang Wei. Bom 699. 'j'j. Landscape. Signed Yen Wen-kuei. Early Sung.78. Landscape. Signed Fan K' uan. Sung. 14 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTScroll Paintings?Continued.79. Landscape. Signed Leng Chen-jen.80. Landscape. Signed I Yiian-chi. Sung.81. Landscape. Signed Ch'ien Hsiian. Late Sung andearly Yiian dynasties.82. Landscape. Signed Liang Ch' ieh. Sung.83. Landscape. Signed Chao Ch'ien-li (also known asChao Ling-jang and Chao Ta-nien) . Sung.84. Buddhistic. Signed Li Lung-mien.85. Buddhistic. Signed Ch'ien Hsiian. Late Sung andearly Yiian dynasties.86. Flowers. Signed Wang Yiian. Yiian.87. Landscape. Signed Wang Meng. Yiian.AlvBUMS.88. Various Artists. Painting exhibited is portrait ofLao-tze, by Chou Fang. Flourished 780 to 805.T'ang.89. Various Artists. Painting exhibited is by Ch'ienShun-chii. Sung.90. A single leaf from an Album. Painting exhibited is byCh'ien Shun-chii. Sung.91. Three leaves from an Album painted by Han Kan.T'ang.MISCELLANEOUS ORIENTAL OBJECTS.Bronzes.92. Case of bronzes containing ? 9 Statuettes. T'ang and earlier. Chinese.6 Mirrors. T'ang and earlier. Chinese.93. Jar. Shang. Chinese.94. Arrow-vase for the game of pitchpot. Han. Chinese.Sculpture.95. Kwan-yin and one attendant. Northern Wei. Chinese.96. Kwan-yin. T'ang. Chinese.97. Relief Tablet. Wei or T'ang. Chinese.98. Relief Tablet. Northern Wei. Chinese. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 15PorRERY.99. Case of pottery containing ? 14 specimens, Chinese.8 specimens, Corean.7 specimens, Japanese.100. Case of pottery containing7 specimens, Persian.9 specimens, Mesopotamian.loi. Jar. Mesopotamian.102. Jar. Persian.103. Case of pottery containing5 specimens, Persian. Illuminations.104. Case containing 4 Persian and Indo-Persian illumina-tions by various artists. Ancient Glass.105. Case containing 7 specimens of ancient Egyptianglass. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE PAINTERS.AMERICAN PAINTERS.JAMES ABBOTT McNEILL WHISTLER.Painter and etcher; bom at Lowell, Mass., in 1834; died at his home inChelsea, London, July 17, 1903. His father, Maj. George WashingtonWhistler, was invited by the Czar of Russia to superintend the constructionof the St. Petersburg & Moscow Railroad, and therefore from his eighthto his fifteenth year he lived in Russia. After his father's death in 1849, heretvuTied to America, and in 1851 entered West Point Military Academy,but did not graduate; later he was connected with the Coast Survey atWashington, D. C. In 1855 Whistler went to England, but shortly afterhe moved to Paris and studied under Gleyre. A portrait of himself etchedin 1859 is the first work of any consequence that is recorded; the same yearhe began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, and four years later settled inLondon. In 1863 his " Symphony in White ' ' was refused at the Salon, butwas hung at the Salon des Refuses, where it made a great sensation. Ofhis many paintings, the masterpiece is the "Portrait of My Mother," pur-chased by the French Government, and now at the Luxembourg in Paris.He delighted in night effects, and his portraits are at their best when thegeneral impression most closely resembles his "nocturnes. " While he wasone of the great painters of all times, yet it is as an etcher that Whistlerranks supreme. Of the many plates that he etched, the series of sixteenknown as the Thames Series takes the first rank. Whistler, the man, wasperhaps the most interesting personality in the art world of the last quarterof the nineteenth century; his wit, his epigrams, his "gentle art of makingenemies," kept him constantly before the public. American Art Annual,New York, IV, igoj-jf.THOMAS WILMER DEWING.Bom, Boston, Mass., May 4, 1851. Pupil of Boulanger and Lefebvre inParis. Clarke prize, Nat. Acad. Design, 1887; silver medal, Paris Exp.1889; gold medals, Pan-American Exp., Buffalo, 1901, and St. Louis Exp.1904; Lippincott prize, Penn. Acad. Fine Arts, 1905; first medal, CarnegieInstitute, 1908. N. A. 1888. Specialty, protraits and figures. Studio,New York. DWIGHT WILLIAM TRYON.Bom, Hartford, Conn., August 13, 1849. Pupil of C. Daubigny, Jac-quesson de la Chevreuse, A. Guillemet, and H. Harpignies in Paris. Bronzemedal, Boston, 1882; gold medals, American Art Assoc, New York, 1886and 18S7; third Hallgarten prize, Nat. Acad. Design, 1887; Ellsworth prize,Chicago Art Inst. 1888; Palmer prize, Chicago Interstate Exp. 1889; Webb37137??12 2 17 18 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART prize, Soc. Amer. Artists, 1889; first class gold medal, Munich Interna-tional Exp. 1892; gold medal, Columbian Exp., Chicago, 1893; first prize,Cleveland Interstate Exp. 1895; first prize, Tennessee Centennial, 1897;gold medal ($1,500), Carnegie Institute, 1898; chronological medal, Carne-gie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1899; gold medals, Pan-American Exp., Buffalo,1901, and St. Louis Exp. 1904. N. A. 1891. Professor of Art, Smith Col-lege. Specialty, landscapes. Studio, New York.ABBOTT HANDERSON THAYER.Bom, Boston, Mass., August 12, 1849. Pupil of Gerome and Ecole desBeaux-Arts in Paris. N. A. 1901; Royal Academy of S. Luca, Rome; Nat.Inst. Arts and Letters. WINSLOW HOMER.A noted landscape, marine, and genre painter, died at his home at Scar-boro. Me., September 29, 1910. He was bom in Boston, February 24, 1836,and at nineteen began working for a lithographer, but two years later tookup painting and illustrating. In 1859 he came to New York, and studiedfor a short time at the National Academy of Design and with FrederickRondel. Harper & Brothers sent him out to make war pictures in 1861 , andhis drawing "Prisoners From the Front," exhibited at the Academy ofDesign in 1866, attracted much attention. After the war he painted manypictures of negro life, and a visit to the Adirondacks inspired the campingscenes with mountain guides; then came travel in England and France.He is best known, however, by his pictures of the Maine coast, where formany years he lived the life of a recluse at Scarboro, the fisher folk servingas his models. A number of his works were included in the Thomas B.Clarke sale in New York in 1899, among them "The Lookout?All's Well"($3,200), now at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; " Life Line," bought byG. W. Elkins for $4,500, and "Eight Bells," which brought the highestprice, $4,700. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns his "Northeaster" and "Searchlight?Santiago deCuba," both presented byGeorge A. Heam, and "The Gulf Stream," which was purchased from theexhibition of the National Academy of Design in 1906. During the last tenyears Homer painted chiefly in water color, most of his subjects being scenesin the Bermudas, which he visited frequently. His exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901, consisted of a group of water colors,for which he was awarded a gold medal; he received the first prize, $1,500,at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, in 1896; the gold medal at the Penn-sylvania Academy of the Fine Arts the same year; a gold medal at theParis Exposition in 1900; the Temple gold medal at the PennsylvaniaAcademy of the Fine Arts in 1902; and gold medals at the CharlestonExposition, 1902; and St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. He was elected anAssociate of the National Academy of Design in 1864, and an Academicianthe following year; became a member of the American Water Color Societyin 1876, and was also a member of the National Institute of Arts and Lettersand of the Century Association. American Art Annual, VIII, igio-ii. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 19JAPANESE PAINTERS.HONNAMI KOYETSU. Born 1556. Died 1637.In the beginning of the seventeenth century there appeared in Kyoto alacquerer of uncommon talent, Koyetsu Honnami, who, by virtue of hisability in caligraphy and painting, invented a style of lacquering of un-usual merit. In the quality of designs and of technique no other produc-tions can bear comparison with his, for Koyetsu 's art was the joint productof his high personality and his varied accomplishments in literature, paint-ing, the Chanoyu, and even in landscape gardening. Koyetsu, amongmany other innovations in lacquer work, brought in the use of tin, lead, andmother-of-pearl. Highly accomplished as Koyetsu was in the lacqueringart, it after all was to him a mere diversion of his leisure hoiu-s, for his chiefduty was to examine and judge old swords, an occupation of considerableimportance in ancient times. For this reason he did not leave behind himvery many productions, and this fact accounts for the rarity of genuinepieces from his hand. Of whom he first learned the art is past finding out,though it is known that in ceramics he received instruction from Koho.The Kokka. TAWARAYA SOTATSU. Bom 1623. Died 1685.With Koyetsu is associated another man of genius, his friend Sotatsu.The two sometimes worked together on a single makemono, Koyetsu addingspecimens of his beautiful writing to Sotatsu 's paintings. Little is knownof Sotatsu 's life, but his works reveal a consummate genius for design.Among all the eminent flower-painters of Japan he stands, in the estimationof his countrymen, supreme. * * * Technically he was an innovation.He mixed gold with his Chinese ink, adding a hidden luster and rare gleamto grey and black. The leaves of his flowers are often veined with gold.He was fond of effacing the ground; we see shoots of bamboo and youngfern fronds springing up from space. His typical masterpieces are screensoverlaid with gold or silver leaf, on which the pigment is gorgeously in-crusted. Yet his magnificence of color, which loves broad spaces of lapisblue, and exults in crimsons, emerald, and purple, keeps always a statelydignity; a marvelous sense of measure holds all the elements of his art inbalance. Binyon.OGATA KORIN. Bom 1640. Died 1716.Korin was related to Koyetsu in that his grandmother was the elder sisterof the latter. Korin 's grandfather had been in hard circumstances beforehe tiuTied out to be a dry-goods merchant, but at the time of the birth of ourartistic genius his father was driving a prosperous trade. The latter was aman of considerable culttire, having mastered the secrets of caligraphy underKoyetsu, an uncle on his wife's side. Though born of a mercantile family,Korin did not succeed to his father's trade, but instead chose painting as hislife work. He studied art, some say under Yasunobu Kano, but according 20 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART to others under Tsunenobu Kano. It is, however, evident that Korin ad-mired the styles of Koyetsu and Sotatsu, which he followed until he evolvedone of his own. Like Koyetsu, Korin was also adept in the Chanoyu and inlandscape gardening. * * *The careless and indifferent manner in which extemporaneous works ofKorin are apparently done gives one at first an impression that he was tooindependent of the conventionalities of art. But closer study of his workcompels a change of opinion, the admiration extorted being all the greaterbecause in no one of his productions is there a trace of that mental toil soinseparable from mediocrity. In truth his pictures mirror most faithfullythe characteristics of the age in which he lived, so varied and so suggestive.His creations are always rich in grace and beauty, and never marred by thatwild grotesqueness which has too often been mistaken for nobility. Thebeauty of Korin 's art is in his loftiness of conception and in the facile strokesof his brush. A painter of the impressionist school, as Korin was, he didnot concern himself about accuracy so long as he succeeded in impartingsome spiritual significance, which significance, however, may in many casesescape the perception of matter-of-fact observers?this subtlety being thevery thing which so delights the hearts of true lovers of Japanese art. * **As originators of new decorative designs in the field of modern painting,Korin and some of his accomplished followers are deservedly entitled tohigh praise. Combining the telling strokes of the Kanos with the fascinatingcoloring of the Tosas, the style of the Korin school is marked by qualitiesethereal in tone and irresistible in effect. It is because of its remarkablesuccess in creating a style of the piuely Japanese type by the amalgamationof styles radically different in their genius that the Korin school has beenhonored with its high place in the history of Japanese art. * * *It was Korin who decorated with life-size flower masses in gold and flowingcolor the sliding doors of the aristocratic Yashikis of Toku-Gawa. TheKokka. OGATA KENZAN. Born 1662. Died 1743.Son of Soken, and brother of the illustrious Korin Yuigen, was the artist'sgiven name, but as pseudonyms he used, besides Kenzan, several others,such as Shinsei, Shoko, To-in, Gyokudo, Reikai, Tozen, and Shuseido. Aman of versatile talent, Kenzajti did not confine himself to art, but alsoshowed many accomplishments in literature and in the Chanoyu, both ofwhich he studied under his distinguished contemporary, Yoken Fujimura.Nor did the artist neglect religious studies, which he piu"sued under a cele-brated divine of his time. He first set up his kiln in the village of Narutaki,a suburb of Kyoto, and the fact that the village lay to the Inui, i. e., tothe northwest of the Imperial Palace, led him to adopt the name of Kenzan,or Northwestern Hill. Later he followed Prince Kimihiro to Yedo (nowTokyo) and fixed his abode at Iriya-no-sato, for his revered patron hadentered the priesthood and dwelt in the Rinno-ji Temple, near by, onUyeno Hill. Here the artist continued his favorite occupation and wasaccordingly called "Iriya-Kenzan." * * * CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 21 At one time in his later years Kenzan had a kiln set up in a humblecottage at Rokkenbori, in Yedo. Whenever invited he would pay hisrespects to his patron Prince, often in his working clothes, soiled with clay.At one time, seeing the unsightly habiliments of the artist, the Prince pre-sented him with a suit of fine silk. Putting it on, the honored craftsmanreturned home and at once resumed his work without a thought of hiscostly garment. This one fact shows how indifferent he was to worldlyvanities and how devoted he was to his occupation. * * *Kenzan died in the third year of the Kwampo Era (1743 A. D.) at the ageof 81. At the time of his death he was absolutely penniless, so that hisImperial patron is said to have graciously provided his funeral expenses.On one side of his tomb was carved a verse to the following effect:Sorrows and pleasures once passed, leave naught but dreams.In most of his pottery works he signed himself Shisui Kenzan, or ShisuiShinsei, or simply Kenzan. Then, too, his talent was not limited to thatparticular industry only; indeed, his genius revealed itself also in callig-raphy, painting, and literature. Next to ceramics, painting was his chiefaccomplishment, he having most favorably handled flowers and birds, andsometimes even landscapes. His style favored that of Koyetsu and Sotatsumore than that of Korin, for he seems to have laid great stress on the powerof touch, and to have preferred a bold, unconventional tone to beauty ofcoloring. This fact is clearly proved by the vigorous designs on his pottery.His paintings show nothing of the crudity and blemishes of the so-called "porcelain painters" of later ages. Truly Kenzan deserves a place in theranks of first-class painters. * * *Although Kenzan belonged to the school which bears the name of hisillustrious brother, he, unlike Korin, who affected beautiful coloring, tookto ink sketches of classic simplicity, which taste may be accounted for byhis intense devotion to religion and the Chanoyu ceremony, both of whichhave a recognized quieting influence upon the hearts of their devotees.Still, Kenzan 's pictures were not always in black and white. On thecontrary, they sometimes were illuminated in a splendor of colors. TheKokka. YEITOKU KANO. Bom 1545. Died 1593.A noble example. How simple are the elements that compose thispictiue; the great pines, the mountains, the snow; but what a sense ofvastness, of majesty, of solitude ! A certain solidity of effect allies such workas this to the masterpieces of Europe ; and in its own kind I do not knowwhere we shall find painting to surpass it, whether in Japan or in the West.Binyon.Yeitoku Kano is considered an artist of extraordinary power. He studiedart under his father Naonobu and his grandfather Motonobu. At the bid-ding of Nobunaga Oda, whose patronage he enjoyed, Yeitoku decorated thewalls and paper doors in the Ando castle mth paintings. Subsequently hedid likewise, at the request of Taiko, to the gilded walls in the Juraka and 22 THENATIONALGALLERYOFARTOsaka castles. He died in 1593 at the age of 48. In later years he wasknown by the name of Ko-Yeitoku or Ancient Yeitoku. The Kokka.Yeitoku was trained in Motonobu's school, and inherited the lofty tradi-tions of Ashikaga painting. Hence a style that might easily have falleninto vulgarity and parade preserved in his hands weight and grandeiu".* * * The typical masterpieces of Yeitoku and his pupils were immensescreens, decorations on walls or sliding panels, painted in opaque pigmentsof rich color on gold leaf. The effect was one of extraordinary magnificence.Nothing could surpass the stately impressiveness of Yeitoku at his best.He painted horses in their stalls or in the freedom of the solitary hills;tigers menacing and irresistible; fabulous lions of strange but royal aspect;birds of rich plumage on forest boughs; fawns flying from the retreat of tallwaving grasses, heroes and princesses of old Chinese legend, and superblandscapes. Binyon. CHINESE PAINTERS.PIEN LUAN. T'ang Dynasty.Then Pien Luan, painter of birds and flowers, is perhaps worthy of a briefnote for his splendid "A Peacock," eulogized by Hu Yen of the Mingdynasty some 500 years later. It appears that between 785 and 806 theKing of the Hsin-lo (in Korea) forwarded as tribute a dancing peacock, andthe Emperor was so pleased that he commissioned Pien Luan to paint twopictures of it, a front and a back view. This he achieved to such purposethat "the plumage of dazzling gold seemed to tinkle faintly" with themovements of the bird. Herbert A . Giles. ^ LI LUNG-MIEN. Sung Dynasty.Li Kung-lin, popularly known as Li Lung-mien, Li of the Dragon Face(Japanese, Ri-riu-min), has been described by one critic as "the firstamong all the painters of the Sung dynasty, equal in brilliancy to themasters of olden times." He belonged to a literary family, and in 1070 hehimself gained the highest degree and entered upon an official career.After serving in several important posts he was compelled in iioo byrheumatism to resign, and retired to the Lung-mien Hill, from which hetook his fancy name, and where he died in 1106. He was a man of manytalents. "He wrote in the style of the Chien-an period (A. D. 196-220);his calligraphy was that of the Chin-Sung epoch (3d and 4th centimes); hispainting ranked with that of Ku K'ai-chih and Lu T'an-wei ; and as a widelyinformed connoisseur in bells, incense biu-ners, and antiques generally, hewas quite without a rival in his day." Dtuing the 10 years he was in office at the capital he never frequentedthe mansions of the influential persons, but whenever he got a holiday, if > An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial Art. By Herbert A. Giles, M. A.,LI*. D., Professor of Chinese in the University of Cambridge. Shanghai. Messrs. Kelly &Walsh, Ld., 1905. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 23 the weather was propitious, he would pack up some wine and go out of thecity, taking with him two or three congenial companions. Then in somefamous garden or leafy wood he would sit on a rock by the water, whilethe hours passed quickly by. Dtuing all the 30 years of his oiBcial life henever for one day forgot mountain and forest; therefore his pictiu-es werethose secenes which he had brought together in his own mind. Late inlife, when suffering from rheumatism, between the groans he would raisehis hand and sketch as it were upon the bedclothes; and when his familyforbade him to do so he smiled and said, 'The old habit has not gone fromme; I do this unconsciously. ' "He copied all the pictiu-es by older masters that he could lay his handson, and carefully stored the copies until he had a very large representativecollection, to which he could always refer. In forming his own style hisendeavor was to reproduce the strong points of each of his exemplars, and itseems to have been universally conceded by native critics that he achieveda marked success. In his own compositions, however, he always managedto introduce some novelties of his own. He painted a Goddess of Mercy "with an exceedingly long girdle, now known as the 'Long-girdled KuanYin;' "also a Kuan Yin reclining on a rock, which was quite a new departure;and again he painted a " Placid Kuan Yin" sitting cross-legged with fingersinterlocked around the knee and a placid expression of countenance."The world," said he, "thinks that placidity must necessarily be associatedwith a cross-legged position; but placidity is in the heart, and not on theoutside." Herbert A. Giles.YEN LI-P^N. T'ang Dynasty.Yen Li-pen, kno\\Ti to the Japanese as En-riu-hon, was, like his elderbrother, in official employ, and by A. D. 668 had risen to the highest rank.One day, when the Emperor was amusing himself in his park, he saw a strangeand beautiful bird, and was so much interested that he bade Yen paint apictm-e of it. Yen was forthwith dubbed " The Painter, ' ' and went home ina rage, and said to his son, " Here am I, a not altogether unsuccessful studentof literatvue, who can only come to the front as a painter, as if I were a menial.Take care that you do not give way to a hobby of the kind. " Neverthelesshe was a very prolific artist. He painted portraits of "The EighteenScholars," and also of a number of "Meritorious Officials" for the Imperialgalleries, and gained the sobriquet of the Color Magician. It is furtherstated that he, too, painted many of the foreigners "who brought tribute toCoiul upon the establishment of the Empire," and his treatment of humanfigures, hats, robes, chariots, etc., was considered to be exceptionally fine.Herbert A . Giks.Yen Li-p6n, called Enriuhon in Japan, Li-to's yoimger brother, was hislocum tenens as Minister of Public Works about A. D. 656, rose to be Under-Secretary of State and a Baron of the Empire in 658 and Minister of theCabinet (nei-ko) in 670. More brilliant even than his career was the reputa-tion he earned as an artist, both in calligraphy and painting. He is con-sidered by far the first colorist of his time and had probably the principal 24 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART share in a celebrated picture representing foreign national types, paintedconjointly with his brother. He painted very numerous portraits andscenes of life in scrolls and as wall pictures preserved in temples. Besidestlie lessons received from his father Li-p6n looked upon Chong Fa-shi, theimitator of Chang Song-yu, as his instructor, but he far surpassed him. TheEmperor Hui-tsung's Gallery contained 42 of his pictures, includingseveral representations of foreign life and a number of portraits, whereasLi-to is represented by nine titles only, one of which reads "Wang Hi-chi(the great calligraphist) pointing his brush." Yen Li-p6n 's ethnographicalpicture, the Si-yii-t'u ("Types from Eastern Turkestan") is said to havebeen later on indorsed with an autogram by the celebrated painter of theMongol period Chau M6ng-fu (died 1322), who comments on the beauties ofthe work and the diflSculties of the subject. Friedrich Hirih}KUO HSI. Sung Dynasty.The name of Kuo Hsi, known to the Japanese as Kwakki, stands amongthe greatest of Chinese painters. Unfortimately , we are not told very muchabout him. Anderson says he "flourished in the period Kai (K'ai) Pao(968-976)"?a century before his time. We read that "he was admittedinto the Imperial Picture Gallery as a student, and that by his landscapesand gloomy forests he soon made a name for himself. At first he relied oncleverness of touch, but gradually he began to put more work into his pic-tures and to adopt the method of Li Ch'eng. His compositions were verymuch improved thereby; and then, later on, he came to seek inspiration andideas from himself, giving free play to his hand on the walls of lofty halls.For tall pines, huge trees, swirling streams, beetling crags, steep precipices,mountain peaks, now lovely in the rising mist, now lost in an obscuring pall,with all their thousand and ten thousand shapes?critics allow that he strodealone across his generation, and that old age only added extra vigour to hisbrush."As regards dates, we are told that in 1068 he received the Imperial com-mand to paint, in collaboration with two contemporary artists, a screen inthree panels, the middle one being allotted to him. He published a treatiseentitled "On Landscape-painting," in which "he discusses distance, depth,wind and rain, light and darkness; also the differences of nights and morningsat the four seasons of the year; how in a painting the spring hills should meltas it were into a smile, how the summer hills should be as it were a blend ofblue and green, how the autumn hills should be clear and pure as a honeycake (?), and how the winter hills should appear as though asleep. " Thereis another passage in which he speaks of "a great mountain grandly domi-nating the lesser hills, and a tall pine offering a splendid example to othertrees"?but here, says a critic, he is no longer on ground consecrated topainting alone. ' Scraps from a Collector's Note Book, being notes on some Chinese Painters of the presentdynasty with appendices on some old masters and art historians. By Friedrich Hirth, Pro-fessor of Chinese, Columbia University in the city of New York. Leiden. Oriental PrintingOffice, 1903. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 25The foUowmg are extracts from his writings: " Landscape is a big thing, and should be viewed from a distance in orderto grasp the scheme of hill and stream. The figures of men and women aresmall matters, and may be spread out on the hand or on a table for examina-tion, when they will be taken in at a glance. "Those who study flower painting take a single stalk and put it into adeep hole, and then examine it from above, thus seeing it from all points ofview. Those who study bamboo painting take a stalk of bamboo, and on amoonlight night project its shadow onto a piece of white silk on a wall ; thetrue form of the bamboo is thus brought out. It is the same with landscapepainting. The artist must place himself in communication with his hillsand streams, and the secret of the scenery will be solved. "Hills have three distances. From the foot looking up to the summit iscalled height-distance. From the front looking through to the back is calleddepth-distance. From near hills looking away to far-off hills is called level-distance. The colour for height-distance should be bright and clear; that fordepth-distance heavy and dark; and that for level-distance may be eitherbright or dark. " Hills without clouds look bare; without water they are wanting in fasci-nation; without paths they are wanting in life; without trees they are dead;without depth-distance they are shallow; without level-distance they arenear; and without height-distance they are low. " The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" gives the titles of 30 of Kuo Hsi's pictures,all landscapes, in the Imperial collection.Not long after Kuo's death a number of his pictiwes had a very narrowescape. An official on whom a mansion had been bestowed, while watch-ing the servants putting it into order, noticed that one of them was cleaningthe furniture with a piece of colored silk. Examining this closely, he foundit was a picture by Kuo Hsi; and on enquiring further he learnt that therewere many more pictures of the same kind in a lumber room. It appearedthat the Emperor Shen Tsung, Kuo's patron, had kept Kuo's works in thisbuilding; but that the next Emperor had caused them to be put away, tofind room for works by the older masters, in which he was more interested.Herbert A. Giles. WU TAO-TZO. T'ang Dynasty.Wu Tao-yuan, better known by his style as Wu Tao-tzii (Japanese GoDoshi), stands by universal consent at the head of all Chinese painters,ancient and modem. He was bom near the capital, which was then atLo-yang in Honan. "A poverty-stricken orphan, but endowed with adivine nature, he had not assumed the cap of puberty ere he was alreadya master artist, and had flooded Lo-yang with his works." The Emperorsoon heard of him, and gave him a post at court. About 720 he painted hisfamous portrait of General P'ei, who did not sit to him, but danced a sworddance before him, the result being that Wu turned out a picture in whichpeople said "he must have been helped by the gods." About 750 theEmperor conceived a longing to see the scenery on the Chia-ling River 26 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART in Ssiich'uan, and sent Wu Tao-tzii to paint it. Wu came back vnthnothing in the way of sketches, and when the Emperor asked for an expla-nation, he replied, " I have it all in my heart." Then he went into one ofthe halls of the palace, and "in a single day he threw off a hundred milesof landscape."At that date Li Ssii-hsiin was much in vogue as a landscape painter,and the Emperor bade him to give a taste of his quality in the same hall. Litook several months to complete his picture; but on seeing the two workstogether the Emperor exclaimed, " Li Ssii-hsiin 's picture of months, and WuTao-tzu's picture of a day, are both masterpieces indeed."In one of the private apartments of the Palace Wu painted five dragons,the scales of which were so lifelike that the creatures seemed to move ; andwhenever it rained a thick mist came from the pictiu-e, dragons beingassociated by the Chinese with vapour and clouds.The lines in which he excelled were numerous, including human beings,Buddhas, gods and devils, birds and beasts, landscape, buildings, andvegetation. One writer tells us that "he was fond of wine and feats ofstrength, and that as a preliminary to work he always made himself tipsy."Another says that he had a keen eye to proper remuneration for his work.We also learn, but without fiuther detail, that "in landscape he initiated aschool of his own;" on the other hand, he was thought to have been "areincarnation of Chang Seng-yu."A great number of Wu's religious picttu-es are described more or less indetail. There was "Purgatory," "the sight of which not only made thebeholder's hair stand on end," but inspired the butchers and fishmongersat the capital with such horror that many of them abandoned the tradesagainst which all the anathemas of Buddhism were hurled and sought alivelihood in other directions. Huang Po-ssii, the art critic , wrote, in 1116,the following note on the above work. "This picture, which was paintedby Wu Tao-tzii, is very different from those now to be seen in temples andpagodas. It has no 'Knife Forest' (where the wicked are impaled onswords), no caldron of boiling water, no ox-headed or green-faced lictors;and yet its gloomy horrors are such as to make beholders sweat and theirhair stand on end, themselves shivering all the time, though it may notbe cold. It has caused men to seek after virtue and give up evil practices;after which, who can say that painting is only a small art?"In incidental connection with the paintings of Wu Tao-tzu we readthat in 746 "the likenesses of Li Fin-fu and Ch'en Hsi-lieh (two well-knownstatesmen) were carved in stone. " The Buddhist rock sculptures at Lung-men in the province of Honan have recently (Journal Asiatique, Juillet-Aoiit 1902) been assigned to the year A. D. 642.Then there is his great picture of Kuan-yin (Avalokitesvara), now popu-larly known as the Goddess of Mercy, which, as seen in the modem woodcut,scarcely suggests the idea of an acknowledged masterpiece. In Chineseeyes, however, it is important as definitely settling the sex of Kuan-yin,over which there has been much controversy among critics ignorant of thereal facts of the case. There is also the picture of the dragon combing CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 27 D^vadatta's beard, "the strokes in which are as though of iron;" that of afemale deva holding an incense burner, " with a sly look in her eye as thoughshe were about to speak;" and especially one Buddhistic picture in which"the heavenly clothes worn by the Richis (angels) flutter so as to make oneactually feel the wind blowing." There is also a pictvu-e of Vimalakirtilying sick, Manjusri calling to enquire after him, and a female deva scatter-ing flowers; another of Shakyamtmi subduing Mara, the Evil One; andagain another of the great Teacher in a peaceful attitude, surroimded by lodisciples, "the shading of the mouth making the picture look extremelylifelike." Altogether, Wu Tao-tzii is said to have painted over 300frescos on the walls of temples alone, with a variety of detail in each casethat was truly astounding. The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" gives the titles of93 of his pictures still to be found in the Imperial collection during thetwelfth century. Herbert A. Giles.CHING HAO. The Five Dynasties.Ching Hao was a landscape painter who worked for his own amusementand wrote a small treatise on the art. He said that " Wu Tao-tzu, in paint-ing landscape, had the brush, but not the paint; Hsiang Jung had the paint,but not the brush. I adopt the strong points of each of -them, and form aschool of my own." Kuan T'ung became his pupil, and "in his eagerdesire to excel the master forgot to eat and sleep." Herbert A. Giles.LI CHAO-TAO (Nephew of Li Ssu-hsiin). T'ang Dynasty.Li Chau-tau, the son of Li Ssi-siin, of whom Chang Yen-yuan says that,while perpetuating the style of his father, he even siupassed him in hiswork. In distinction from "the Great Marshal," his father, he was called "the Little, or Jimior, Marshal Li"(Siau Li-tsiang-kun). His work wasnot confined to landscapes, though, "birds and beasts" being mentionedas another category in which he excelled. Friedrich Hirth.HSU HSI. The Five Dynasties.Hsii Hsi, a Government official, was "famous for his flowers, bamboos,trees, cicadas, butterflies, etc. He used to frequent kitchen gardens insearch of subjects; but although his pictures contain cabbages and suchvegetables, in expression he passes beyond the limitations of the old mas-ters. " He was also a fine colorist, and could impart life to his work. Oneof his great works was a picture of the Parthian tree (pomegranate), coveredwith more than a himdred of the fruit. Another was " Peonies in a Wind, " consisting of "a cluster of several thousand leaves and only three flowers;one flower straight in front, a second on the right-hand side, and the thirdquite behind a dense mass of leaves." "For flowers, Hsii Hsi generallyused a fine transparent paper; when he painted on silk, he used a rathercoarse-ribbed kind." A critic says, "In painting flowers people ordi-narily aim at strict resemblance; but not so Hsu Hsi. And the painter 28 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART who can ignore such resemblance becomes what Ssu-ma Ch'ien was amongprose writers and Tu Fu among poets"?an artist of the very front rank.The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" gives the titles of 249 of his pictures in theImperial collection (twelfth century), all of birds, fruit, flowers, and fishes.Herbert A . Giles.CHAO CH'ANG. Sung Dynasty. Eleventh Century.Among painters of flowers and fruit, Chao Ch'ang, known to the Japaneseas Cho-sho, holds a very high place. In his youth, at the beginning of theeleventh centiu-y, he wandered about a good deal in modem Ssiich'uan,and left behind him many of his " traces, ' ' as the Chinese call them ; but latein his life he went back and bought up as many of them as he could obtain,so that his pictures became rare in the market. " Other artists," says onecritic, "produce an accurate resemblance of the flowers they paint; but theart of Chao Ch'ang not only produces an accurate resemblance, but handsover to you the very soul of the flower along with it." " Every morning,before the dew had gone, he would walk around the garden and examinesome flower carefully, turning it over and over in his hand. Then he wouldprepare his paints and paint it. He called himself Draw-from-Life ; butpeople in general declared that his flowers were dyed, and not producedby colour laid on. This in fact is a test of their genuineness: If whenrubbed with the hand no colour comes off on the fingers, the flowers areindubitably from the brush of Chao Ch'ang."The "Hstian ho hua p'u" gives the title of 154 of his works in the Im-perial collection, all in the lines indicated above. Herbert A. Giles.CHANG S^NG-YU. Liang Dynasty.The Liang dynasty lasted from A. D. 479 to 557, and produced about16 painters whose names have been handed down.The list opens with three Imperial princes, and we are told that one ofthese used to dash off likenesses of his guests in the banquet hall, whichwere easily recognized by children on whom their resemblance was tested.But before proceeding, it is worth while to mention that, according to LoPin-wang, a poet of the seventh century, wall paintings were first introducedunder this dynasty. The new departure, as will be seen, was obviously inresponse to a desire on the part of Buddhists for ornamentation in theirtemples, from which the custom very naturally spread to the ImperialPalace and the mansions of wealthy individuals.Fourth on the list stands one of China's really great painters, Chang Seng-yu, known to the Japanese as Cho-so-yu, whom Anderson alludes to as thenext artist after Ts ao Pu-hsing, "concerning whom any precise informationis attainable." As a matter of fact, the information concerning ChangS^ng-yu is not precise as that which is obtainable concerning many paintersof much earlier times. We do not know the dates either of his birth ordeath. We hear of him first of all about A. D. 510, employed as keeper oftlie pictures under one of the Imperial princes. The reigning Emperor, a CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 29devout Buddhist, who on two occasions actually adopted priestly garb,and had all his sacrificial victims made of dough to avoid taking life, engagedChang to paint pictures for a temple he had just built. He also commis-sioned him to paint the portraits of the Princes, who were all away fromhome, the result being a set of likenesses "exactly like the originals."For the temple at Nanking to the Supreme Being, founded by the Em-peror himself, Chang painted a Buddhist picture into which he introducedConfucius and the Ten Sages of old. The astonished Emperor asked whathe meant by this; to which Chang replied, "Some day men will look tothese for aid. " This ambiguous saying was held to be fulfilled when, underthe second Emperor of the later Chou dynasty, in the first half of the tenthcentiuy, there was a general spoliation of Buddhist temples, but this onewas spared because of the presence of Confucius within its walls.In another temple at Chinkiang the priests were much annoyed by thepigeons among the beams. Chang soon put an end to this by painting afalcon on the east wall and a kite on the west wall, which effectually fright-ened the pigeons away. Herbert A. Giles.MA YOAN. Sung Dynasty, Twelfth Century.Ma Yiian (Japanese Ba-yen) flourished as a court painter between 1190and 1224. "In landscape, human figures, flowers, and birds, he was verysuccessful, and stood first of the Academicians. " He had an elder brother,Ma K'uei, which name Anderson misreads Ma Tah (Japanese Ba-tatsu), whoexcelled him in painting birds, but "in other subjects did not come upto him;" and also a son. Ma Lin, who " was able to carry on the family tra-dition, but was a long way behind his father. ' ' Herbert A . Giles.LIANG K'AI. Sung Dynasty.Liang K'ai was, along with Ma Yiian and Hsia Kuei, a great master of artin the days of the Sung djmasty. The artist Liang K'ai was known for hismasterly handling of both landscape and portrait subjects, especially thelatter. He was appointed an honorary member of the Royal Art Instituteand was decorated with the Chin-tai (Tlie Golden Belt) which he, however,never wore but left hung up in the Institute. While his contemporariesstruggled for official honours and personal emolument, he alone rose abovethese marks of worldly distinction, and lived happy and contented in hisself-sought obsciu-ity. In nobility of sentiment, vigotu- of touch, simplicityand freedom of treatment, Liang K'ai has hardly been approached.The superiority of Chinese landscape art lies in representing a scene ofimpressive magnitude in such a manner that the beholder may read in itlines of hidden thought. Chinese landscapists have striven to impartbesides the above quality a tone of calmness and solitude, such a tendencybeing especially noticeable in the productions of the South-Sang dynasty.In the Yiian dynasty this tendency became even more pronounced, withthe result that sometimes the tone became too rigidly pensive and devoidof the compensating quality of pleasant ease. The matter grew still worse 30 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART in the time of the Ming dynasty, when conventionalism had full sway,resulting in the loss of spiritual expression, the life and soul of Chineselandscape art. The landscape productions of Ma Yiian, Hsia Kuei, LiangK'ai, and Yu Chien have given invaluable lessons to Japanese painters,who, while they modified to a greater or less extent their styles, at bottomowed their accomplishments to these illustrious Chinese painters.Commenting on Liang K'ai the ' T'u-hui-pao-chien ' (A Compendium ofChinese Paintings) remarks that he handled mostly human figiires (pre-eminently sages and savants) and landscapes, and only now and then birdsand flowers. He first studied under Ku Shih-ku, but in the end out-stripped his master. Liang K'ai distinguished himself by purity andstrength of touch, and in economy of strokes. The Kokka. LIN LIANG. Ming Dynasty.Lin Liang was a native of Kuangtung who became eminent as a painterof flowers, fruit, birds, trees, etc. He is said to have been a very rapidworker, using his brush as though he were writing the "grass character, " beyond compare in his own day. Herbert A . Giles. LI SSC-HSUN. T'ang Dynasty. " Under the Tang dynasty painting was for the first time divided intoNorthern and Southern schools. The former was founded by Li Ssu-hsiinand his son, who painted their landscapes in brilliant colours, and whosetradition was carried on by Chao Kan, Chao Po, Chii Po-hsiao, of the Sungdynasty, down to Ma-yiian, Hsia Kuei, and others."About the year 745, Li was ordered to paint a door screen for the EmperorMing Huang. A few days after its completion, the Emperor said to him, " Your skill is more than mortal; at night I can hear the plash of the waterin your picture. " This is perhaps a sufficient testimonial. But in his daythere was a perfect craze for pictures by "the General," and legend soonbecame busy with his name. " On one occasion he was painting a fish, andhad completed his work, all save the usual surrotmdings of river plants.Just then some one knocked at the door, and he stepped out to see who itwas. On his return the picture was gone; and it was subsequently fotmdby a servant in a pond whither it had been blown by a gust of wind. Thefish, however, had disappeared, leaving only a blank piece of paper. Thenfor a joke he painted several fishes and threw them into the pond; butalthough the picture remained in the water all night, the fishes did notmanage to get away." Herbert A. Giles.Li Ssi-sun, a relation of the Imperial house of the T'ang Dynasty, who,like several other members of his family, excelled in landscape painting,was born in A. D. 651 and died in 716, according to some in 720. In 713 hehad been appointed field-marshal (ta-tsiang-kun), for which reason hispictures are spoken of as " Marshal Li 's Landscapes. ' ' He was looked uponas the best landscapist of the period, his reputation being chiefly due to CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 31 his coloristic efforts. His paintings had a chrysochlorous shine about them . This was his specialty and was much imitated by later masters. It was onthis account that he was looked upon as having furnished the pattern forlandscape work as far as colors are concerned. His originality in the color-ing of his pictures has caused later art historians to described him as thefounder of a school. Friedrich Hirih.WANG WEI. T'ang Dynasty. Seventh Century.We now come to Wang Wei, the great poet, known to the Japanese asO-i, who was almost equally famous as a painter. It was, indeed, said bySu Tung-p'o that "his poems were pictures, and his pictiu^es poems."Bom in 699, he entered into public life, and rose to high office. He wascarried off by the great rebel of the day; and on the latter 's death he hadsome trouble to save himself from the executioner. He finally retired toa coimtry house, and ended his days at the age of 60 in the enjoymentof such pleasures as may be derived from poetry, painting, and music,and with such consolations as maybe afforded by the Buddhist religion,in which he had always been a firm believer. We are told that "his pic-tures were full of thought, and rivaled even nature herself"; also that "his ideas transcended the bounds of mortality." He is chiefly remem-bered as a landscape painter, but his portraits are said to have beenfine performances. Herbert A . Giles.YEN W^N-KUEI. Sung Dynasty, Eleventh Century.Yen Wen-kuei was a landscape painter, who went to the capital seekinghis fortune, and sold his pictures in the streets. Some of these were seenby Kao I, when already enjoying the Imperial favor, and he brought themto the notice of the Emperor, with a request that the artist might beemployed to assist him by painting the trees and rocks in the great frescosupon which he was engaged. Yen was accordingly sent for, and wascommanded by the Emperor to paint "his minister's portrait, "in obviousallusion to Kao I. However, when Yen handed up his work, it turnedout to be a white silk fan, on which he had painted a portrait of himself;and luckily for him, the Emperor was a man who could appreciate a jokeas well as a painting. "There was preserved in the Kao family a sea picture by Yen Wen-kuei, not a foot square in size. The ships were like leaves, and the sailorslike grains of barley; nevertheless the spars, sails, and sweeps, the point-ing, shouting, and hturied movements of the crew, were all fully delineated;while the fiuy of wind and wave, the neighboring isles and islets, withmonsters of the deep now and again rising into view?a thousand li in afoot of space?produced indeed a wonderful effect."One critic says, "Yen did not model his style upon that of any oldmaster, but originated a style of his own. His scenery in all its changingvariety was so lovely that spectators fancied themselves at the very spots. 32 THENATIONALGALLERYOFART and his painting created a form of landscape known as 'scenery of theYen school . * "Another critic adds the following to some remarks in a similar strain:"The minuteness and the clearness of his detail were delightful, but hewas lacking in anatomical strength." No dates are forthcoming beyond amention of work done by him in 1008. Herbert A. Giles.FAN K'UAN. Sung Dynasty.Fan K'uan was really named Fan Chung-cheng; but because of hiskindly, liberal-minded disposition, he was called Fan K'uan, which meansFan the Broad. No dates are given, except that he was said to be "stillalive" about A. D. 1026."He loved wine, was rather wanting in energy, and unconventional;consequently he spent much of his time between the capital (Pien-liang)and Lo-yang (the old capital). He was fond of painting landscape, andbegan by modeling his style upon that of Li Ch'eng; but by and by hiseyes were opened, and he said with a sigh, ' The method of m^'^ predecessorshas not been to get into intimate relationship with things. Better thanstudying the style of a master will be to study the things themselves; andbetter even than studying things will be to study the inwardness of thosethings. ' Thereupon he gave up the system upon which he had been work-ing, and retired to a beautifully wooded spot on the Chung-nan Mountainin Shensi. There he would gaze upon the shifting values of cloud andmist, the difficult effects of wind and moon and shadow and light, until atlength his soul was filled with inspiration, and forth from his brush wouldcome a thousand cliffs and myriad ravines. Then the spectator would feelhimself strolling along some shady mountain path; and even though itmight be the height of summer, a chill would come over him and a hiurieddesire for warmer clothes. Therefore, throughout the Empire Fan K'uanbecame known as one who could reproduce the spirit of the hills, worthyto drive his chariot abreast with Kuan T'ung or Li Ch'eng."Another writer says, "Living among moimtains and forests, he wouldsometimes spend a whole day sitting upon a crag and looking all around toenjoy the beauties of the scene. Even on snowy nights, when there wasa moon he would pace up and down, gazing fixedly in order that inspirationmight come. He studied the art of Li Ch'eng; but although he succeededto perfection, he was still inferior to his master. When subsequently hedrew his inspiration from real scenery, with no superfluous ornamenta-tion, then he gave to his mountain a genuine anatomy which ranks himas the founder of a school; and this characteristic of firmness and antiquity,plagiarised from no previous artist, entitled him to equal honours wdthLi Ch'eng. During the long sway of the House of Sung, these two were theonly landscape painters of the very first rank, and they have never beensurpassed. In their day it was said that, looking into what seems close inLi Ch'eng 's pictures, you see that it is a thousand li away; while whenlooking into the distance of Fan K'uan 's pictures, the scenery seems to beat hand. Both may be said to have given their creations life." CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 33A third panegyrist, after repeating much of what has akeady beengiven, adds that Fan K'uan "really grasped the very bones of the moun-tains. In his later years, however, he used too much ink, thus makingearth and rocks indistinguishable." Herbert A. Giles. I YOAN-CHI. Sung Dynasty, Eleventh Century,I Yiian-chi, known to the Japanese as I-gen-kitsu, was a native of Hunan,who "began his career as a painter of flowers and birds. When, however,he saw what Chao Ch'ang had achieved he said, ' The age does not lack men;what I must do to make a name is to strike out in some original line notalready occupied by the men of old.' Thereupon he set off to travel farand wide, visiting famous mountains and great rivers, and whenever hecame across any particularly fine scenery there he would fix his attention,and roam about almost as it were in the very company of the gibbon, thedeer, and the wild boar. And so, when he came to transfer with his brushthese experiences of mind and eye, the result was something of which theeveryday world had never succeeded in catching a glimpse. Then, whenat home, at the back of his own house he laid out a garden and dug ponds,with rockwork and bamboos and rushes, and kept there a variety of water-fowl and animals, so as to be able to watch them in movement and in repose,and to reproduce them more successfully in his pictures. Thus it was thatin this branch of art no one came out on his right"?i. e., surpassed him,the right hand being then the place of honour instead of the left, as in thepresent day.We hear of him in 1066, employed in decorating the Palace walls. Hispicture of "A Himdred Gibbons" is several times mentioned as a master-piece, but no details are given to afford a clue either to the composition orto its style. One authority says, " I Yiian-chi painted an immense numberof pictures, and signed them himself as follows: 'Painted by I Yiian-chi,otherwise knowTi as Chu-chiao, of Ch'ang-sha.' " The "Hsiian ho hua p'u"gives the titles of 245 works of his in the Imperial collection, among whichwere many landscapes, animals, birds, flowers, fruits, etc. Herbert A . Giles.CH'IEN HSOAN. Sung and Yuan Dynasties.Ch'ien Hsiian, or Ch'ien Shun-chii, of Wu-hsing in Chehkiang, knownas the Man of the Jade Pool and Roaring Torrent, graduated as chin shihabout 1260, and, still faithful to the expiring Sung djTiasty, joined a smallcoterie of which Chao Meng-fu was president. When later on Chao tookoflSce under the Mongols, Ch'ien was very indignant, and wandered about,occupying himself with poetry and painting, until the end. He requiredthe stimulus of wine: "only when he was beginning to get drunk was thereco-ordination of mind and hand." When his paintings were finished hetroubled no more about them, and connoisseurs used to carry them away.His best efforts were said to be equal to works by the old masters. On oneoccasion he borrowed a picture of a white eagle, and after copying it care-fully he kept it and returned the copy, the OAvner not discovering the change.He painted human figures, landscape, flowers, and birds. Herbert A . Giles.37137??12 3 34 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ARTCHAO LING-JANG. Sung Dynasty.Chao Ling-jang, better known as Chao Ta-nien, was an Imperial clans-man of the House of Sung, a fact which he considered as an obstacle to hisunqualified success in art. However, he managed to secure a good educa-tion before he turned to painting, and then devoted himself to copying thegreat masters of the Chin and Tang dynasties, especially the works ofWang Wei, Li Ssii-hsun, Pi Himg, and Wei Yen, whose originals, in the twolast-mentioned cases, he is said to have sxuTJassed before many months hadgone by. The exquisite poetry of Tu Fu is also quoted as another sourceof his inspiration. Although he never traveled far afield, finding his land-scapes in the country around the capital within a radius of less than a hun-dred miles, his pictures were siu"e to contain some new impression, somestriking treatment. Many of his landscapes were painted on fans, at theback of which the Emperor Che Tstmg, 1085-1100, would inscribe appropri-ate lines. When he became famous, the demands made upon him were soexhausting that he cried in despair, "This is to be a slave to art!"Mi Yiian-chang wrote: " Ta-nien 's pictures are pure and beautiful; hiseyots and his water fowl are pregnant with expression of river and lake.When in the capital I obtained a horizontal scroll-picture of his, entitled ' Home Again. ' The bamboo fence, the rush hut, the mist-enveloped grove,distant hills and streams?a thousand li in a foot of space?sedge and bul-rush, egret and gull?a perfect riverine scene painted with loving skill."Among minor artists of the period we read of one who was the fifth indescent from father to son, a good instance of heredity ; of another who wrotefrom a distance : I paint the old hills round my home every day,Lest my soul should forget them, now far, far away.Herbert A . Giles.WANG YUAN. Yuan Dynasty.In 1329 a minor painter, named Wang Yiian, had to paint the figure of ademon on a temple wall over 30 feet in height. He began by submitting asketch which he had painted on a number of sheets pasted together, but itwas found that the arms and legs of the demon were an>i;hing but anatomi-cally correct. " If you will deign to take instruction from an inferior, ' ' saidthe managing director (quoting Confucius), "I would advise you first totake your measurements and then draw a nude figure. You can clothe itafterwards." Herbert A. Giles.WANG M?NG. Yiian Dynasty.Wang M^ng, sometimes called Yellow Crane, was a grandson of ChaoMfeng-fu on the maternal side. He loved painting and acquired the methodof his grandfather. But he did not lay himself out to please his generation;he merely painted as a means of expressing the genius that was latent inhim. It was the same with his literary compositions; he placed himself CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 35 under no restraint, and in a short space of time would produce severalthousand words.In landscape he took Chu Jan as his model, and he also studied the worksof Wang Wei. "He did not generally use silk, but sketched out his ideason paper, finally carrying out his conceptions according to several schools.He would treat landscape in more than ten different ways and trees in agreat many more than that. His paths would \\'ind and wind ; his mists andclouds were vague; his mountain forests were wonderfully suggestive ofdarkness."Elsewhere we read: " For T'ao Tsung-i (a well-known art critic who flotir-ished about A. D. 1350) he painted 'The South Village,' with all the detailsof ducks, cats, dogs, spinning wheel, pestle for hulling rice, and the imple-ments of everyday life. For a sense of solidity and for expression from fewtouches, Huang Kung-wang and Ni Tsan are supreme in their respectivedomains; but for general effect they must both yield to Yellow Crane."Herbert A. Giles. CHOU FANG. T'ang Dynasty.Chou Fang floiuished as an artist under the Emperor Te Tsung, A. D.780-805. His elder brother had accompanied Ko-shu Han on his victoriouscampaign against the Turfan, when the Chinese army captured the "StoneFortress, ' ' the kOcvog nup-j-og of Marianus of Tyre and of Ptolemy, recentlyidentified by Dr. Stein. On his retxun he was able to put in a good wordfor his younger brother, and the latter was summoned to Court and orderedto execute a painting of a religious subject in a temple which the Emperorhad just restored. " No sooner had he begun to paint than the people of thecapital flocked in to watch him, fools and wise alike, some pointing out thebeauties of his work and others drawing attention to its shortcomings. Hemade changes accordingly, and by the end of a month or so there was not adissentient voice to be heard, everybody uniting in praise of the paintingand declaring it to be the masterpiece of the day."Among his other great pictures may be mentioned "Moonlight on theWater," "The Goddess of Mercy," "Vaisravana" (whose features wererevealed to him in a dream), and also a portrait of Chao Tsimg, son-in-lawto the great general, Kuo Tzii-i. A previous portrait of him had beenexecuted by Han Kan, and the old father-in-law "had the two placed sideby side for comparison, but could not decide between them. When hisdaughter came to see him, he said, 'Who are these?' 'Those are the Secre-tary,' she replied. 'Wliich portrait is most like?' he continued. 'Theyare both very like, ' she said, ' but the later one is the better picture. ' 'Whatdo you mean by that?' he asked. 'The earlier portrait is the Secretary sofar as form and features go,' answered his daughter; 'the later artist hascaught in addition the very soul of the man, who seems to be laughing andtalking before us. ' "The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" enumerates the titles of seventy-two of hispictures in the Imperial collection (twelfth century). 36 THENATIONALGALLERYOFART In the very early years of the ninth century, according to one authority,there appeared certain men from the Hsin-lo nation, who "bought up at ahigh price several tens of Chou Fang's pictures, and carried them away totheir country." This entry is of some importance, Hsin-lo being an oldkingdom in the southwest of Korea, from which country Japan is said to havereceived her first lessons in Chinese art. Huang Po-ssiS, the art critic, pointsout that Chou Fang made his name first of all by Buddhistic pictures andthat later on his Taoist pictures were among the finest of his day. " Butnow," he adds, "we see nothing save his men and girls, which is verymuch a matter for regret." Herbert A. Giles.HAN KAN. T'ang Dynasty, Eighth Century.Han Kan, known to the Japanese as Kan-kan, was bom at no great dis-tance from Ch'ang-an, the once famous capital in Shenci, and "in hisyouth was employed as potboy by a neighboring publican. Before WangWei and his tjrother had made their mark they often bought liquor oncredit to take with them during their rambles; and when Han Kan wentsubsequently to their house to dun them for the money he used to beguilehis hours of waiting by drawing men and horses on the ground. WangWei was so struck by these efforts that he gave Han Kan annually a sumof 20,000 cash (say ?5), and set him to study painting for over ten years."Elsewhere we read, "Han Kan was a portrait painter of a high order,but his forte was horses. At first he studied under Ts'ao Pa, but later onhe worked by himself. There was actually a popular rhyme of the day,saying, Han Kan's horsesCame from Ts'ao Pa's courses.The Emperor was very fond of large horses, and in his stables he had asmany as 40,000 animals, so that he obtained a fine and large breed. FromFerghana in the west he annually received some as tribute, and these hesent up north to be taught to amble." The writer adds that "in speedthey were equal to the wind, and the ground reflected on their shiningcoats. ' ' The following story is perhaps the most widely known of all, true andfalse alike, that have been handed down concerning this painter: "Inthe middle of the T'ien-pao period (742-756) Han Kan was summoned toCourt, and the Emperor bade him study horse painting under the guid-ance of Ch'en Hung, of whom anon. Later on His Majesty reproved HanKan for not having obeyed orders, whereupon the latter replied, 'Sire, Ihave teachers of my own. All the horses in the Imperial stables are myteachers'; at which answer the Emperor was much astonished."A great many of Han Kan's Buddhist pictures are recorded, Bodhisat-vas, demons, and the like, mostly painted on the walls of temples. Healso painted many portraits of eminent Buddhist priests. Among hishorse pictures the most remarkable are: "The Emperor Trying Horses," " Horse Physiognomy, " and especially, "A Hundred Colts. " This picture. CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 37 to judge from the woodcuts which have come down to us, consisted of twodiscs with fifty animals on each, all in various positions, no two alike, andmust have been a very beautiful work. There is also a pictiu-e of " PrinceNing Training Horses for Polo," a game which is said to have been intro-duced some centuries earlier by the Turkish and Tungusic emperors ofChina.Another of his pictiu'es had for its title "Yellow Horse sent as Tributefrom Khoten"?a high-stepping and martial-looking animal. "It has been handed down by tradition that whenever he painted ahorse, Han Kan paid great attention to the season and the weather (in thepictiure), and to the angle and position of the animal, before he settled thestructural anatomy and the colour of the hair. This was doubtless becausethe horse is classed under the element fire and has its corresponding sta-tion in the south; so that whether the colour was bluish gray, or black, ordappled, or white, it was always laid on in conformity with cyclical require-ments, and with such splendid results. His success was also partly attribu-table to the fact that he obtained first-class horses as his subjects."What his contemporaries thought of his art may be seen in the eulogisticlines where Tu Fu, the poet, describes one of his horses as "whiter thandriven snow, its hoofs clattering with the tliunder of hail, meet steed onlyfor the skilled horseman, a veritable go-between of dragons."The "Hiian ho hua p'u" gives the titles of fifty-two of his pictures, allconnected with horses and hunting, in the Imperial collection (twelfthcentury'). Herbert A. Giles.HSIA KUEI. Sung Dynasty. Twelfth Century.Hsia Kuei (Japanese Ka-kei) was a native of Ch'ien-t'ang, and served inthe Han-lin College under the Emperor Ning Tsung (i 194-1224), beingdecorated with the order of the Golden Girdle. " He painted human figuresof all sorts and conditions. His monochromes seemed to be colored; hisbrushwork was virile; and his ink was as though dripped on?truly verywonderful. For his snow scenery he went to the works of Fan K'uan; andin landscape no academician since Li T'ang has come out on his righthand. ' ' Herbert A . Giles.CHAO TZO-YUN. Sung Dynasty. Twelfth Century.Chao Tzii-yQn is disposed of almost in a line. " He could produce a pic-ture by a single brush stroke. In painting faces and hands, he was carefulenough, but would dispose of draperies as if he were a calligraphist, by onestroke." He must have flourished about A. D. 1150. Herbert A. Giles. INDEX OF PAINTERS. Page.Chang Seng-yu 13, 28Chao Ch'ang 12, 28Chao Ch'ien-li 14Chao Iving-jang 34Chao Tzu-ytin 37Ch'en So Wung 13Ch' ien Hstian i4? 33Ch'ien Shun-chu 14Ching Hao 12, 27Chou Fang i4> 35Dewing, Thomas Wilmer 10, 17Fan K'uan i3? 32Han Kan i4> 36Homer, Winslow 10, 18Hsia Kuei 37Hsu Hsi 12, 27I Yiian-chi i4i 33Kano II, 21Kenzan 11, 20Korin ii> 19Koyetsu 10, 19Kuo Hsi 12, 24Ku-su 13Leng Chen-jen 14Liang Ch'ieh 14Li Chao-tao 12, 27Li Lung-mien 12, 14, 22Li Ssu-hsiin ^3^3?Liang K'ai i3> 29Lin Liang ^3>3?Ma Yiian i3i 29Pien Luan 12, 22Sosen I rSotatsu 10, 19Thayer, Abbott Handerson 10, 18Tryon, Dwight William lOj 17Wang Meng I4? 34Wang Wei 13, 3'Wang Yiian i4> 34Whistler, James Abbott McNeill 9, 17Wu Tao-tzii 12, 25Yen Li-pen 12, 13, 23Yen Wen-kuei i3j 3^39o 1^^ I SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES 3 9088 01421 1262