Fishing in River Country at Blossom Time

Inscription: Artist’s inscriptions and signatures

1. (5 columns in semi-cursive script)

Fishing in the river country,
Flowers blossoming all over the lake and sky.

In the tenth month of the jichou year (1709) I painted this in the style of Zhao Songxue (Zhao Mengfu, 1254‒1322) for the elderly Zhongweng for his advice. Wang Yuanqi[1]

江國綸垂，湖天花發。己丑小春，倣趙松雪似仲翁老世叔年先生正。王原祁

2. (10 columns in semi-cursive script)

Formerly in my family collection, there was a precious album, in which the leaf titled “Recluse-fisherman on the Blossoming River” by Songxue (Zhao Mengfu) with a fisherman on a river surrounded by blue mountains, green streams, and peach blossoms is the best with its spirited brushwork. Siweng (Dong Qichang, 1555‒1636) changed the composition into a long handscroll titled Fishing on a River, using the brush method employed in The Summer Mountains to depict a fisherman in a small boat amid verdant trees and floating water grass. It has the same idea, though the function is different. In the ninth month of autumn of the jichou year (1709), on a sunny day after a long rain, I had some leisure after my office work, so I recalled these two paintings and drew my own. Upon its completion, my senior friend Erchang saw it and asked his friend to express his interest in having it sent to his grandfather in Hunan, who is a leading figure in the art field. I therefore gave it to him. (ran) I inscribed this again in the Guyi Tang Studio, my residence in the capital, on the first day of the mid-winter month. Lutai, Qi

余家舊藏千金畫冊有松雪 《花溪漁隱》 一幅，青山碧湖，桃花四面，小舟一人蕩槳中流，最爲神逸之筆。思翁易為長幅，作 《江上垂綸圖》，用 《夏山》 筆法，綠蔭周遮，流澌水草，一人垂綸小艇，亦是此意，而作用互異耳。己丑九秋積雨初晴，適公事稍暇，追憶兩圖，以臆見點*成。此卷甫成，爲爾長世兄所見，托友將意欲郵致湖湘尊大父先生，此風雅宗匠也，因以歸之。染 仲冬朔日又题於京邸穀詒堂。麓臺祁

Artist's seals

Wang Yuanqi yin 王原祁印
Lutai 麓臺
Yushu huatu liu yu ren kan 御書 畫圖留與人看
Wang Yuanqi 王原祁 (square, relief/intaglio)
Shishi Daoren 石師道人 (square, intaglio)

Label strip

Zhang Boying 張伯英 (1869–after 1940), 2 columns in standard script, dated 1940; 2 seals:

王麓臺 《江國垂綸圖》。仿趙承旨著色本。庚辰秋七月，銅山張伯英獲觀因題。 [印]： 勺道人、英

Colophon

Weng Wange 翁萬戈 (Wan-go Weng, b. 1918), 18 columns in standard script, dated 1971; 2 seals:

麓臺功力以天機出之，結構緊而筆墨鬆，其境清新高逸，其意安閒恬適。開合起伏，輪廓氣勢，悠然怡然莫不中肯。吾人處城市俗氛中，一展萬慮都盡，流連忘返，其傳神處如至友談心，了無窒礙，蓋元四家、董思翁後為山水畫別開面目者也。此卷為麓臺近七旬之作，爐火純青，以松雪之秀麗典雅，參思翁之筆致疏蕩，誠希世之珍。自老友杜柏秋之手轉歸顧洛阜兄，與其寳藏法書名畫為侶，可稱得所，蒙囑書後欣然應之。自念與麓臺有緣，異域相逢，畧申仰止之忱，識者當不以唐突古人而譏之也。翁萬戈書於赫德孫畔，一九七一年九月初四。 [印]: 靜觀自得、翁萬戈書畫

Collectors' seals

Jean-Pierre Dubosc (1903–1988)
杜讓審定
柏秋氏銘心絕品

Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 (John M. Crawford, Jr., 1913–1988)
漢光閣
漢光閣主顧洛阜鑑藏中國古代書畫之章
顧洛阜


[1] Translations from Department records.

[ Jean-Pierre Dubosc French, by 1989]; John M. Crawford Jr. American, (New York, until 1989); John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (until d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Text and Image: The Interaction of Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy," January 23–August 16, 1999.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A Millennium of Chinese Painting: Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection," September 8, 2001–January 13, 2002.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "When the Manchus Ruled China: Painting under the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)," February 2–August 18, 2002.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China," August 26, 2017–January 6, 2019.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Learning to Paint in Premodern China," February 18, 2023–January 7, 2024.

Weng, Wan-go, and Thomas Lawton. Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: A Pictorial Survey: 69 Fine Examples from the John Crawford, Jr. Collection. New York: Dover Publications, 1978, cat. no. 63.

Suzuki Kei 鈴木敬, ed. Chûgoku kaiga sogo zuroku: Daiikan, Amerika-Kanada Hen 中國繪畫總合圖錄: 第一卷 アメリカ - カナダ 編 (Comprehensive illustrated catalog of Chinese paintings: vol. 1 American and Canadian collections) Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1982, pp. 100–101, cat. no. A15-032.

Shih Shou-ch'ien, Maxwell K. Hearn, and Alfreda Murck. The John M. Crawford, Jr., Collection of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Checklist. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984, p. 48, cat. no. 167.