Lot 38
HE CHONG (1807-1883)
TWO INK AND COLOUR ON PAPER SCROLL PAINTINGS
Auction: 13 March 2024 from 10:00 GMT
Description
清 何翀（1807-1883） 紙本設色 立軸（共兩幅）
含：
荔枝與鳥圖款識: 煙橋老人丹山何翀寫意
鈐印: 丹山、何翀之印花鳥圖
款識: 七十二峰道人丹山作
鈐印: 丹山、何翀之印
comprising: one depicting a larger bird perching on a gnarling branch, two smaller birds in flight, all amongst lychee fruits, signed lower right, with two artist's seals; the other depicting three birds perching on a flowering tree, inscribed and signed upper left with two artist's seals (2)
Dimensions
145.5cm x 38.3cm; 146cm x 38.5cm
Provenance
Private Scottish collection, Glasgow; From the collection of Norman Lockhart Smith (1887-1968), thence by family descent.
Norman Lockhart Smith was in the Hong Kong Civil Service from 1910 to 1941 and became Colonial Secretary in 1936. He served as Acting Governor at various times, the longest being between April and November 1937. On his retirement in November 1941, Norman Lockhart Smith left Hong Kong with his family on 7th December 1941.
Norman Lockhart Smith continued to be the patron of Chinese culture and arts. He published a compilation of Chinese poetry, The Penguin Book of Chinese Verse, in 1962 in collaboration with a colleague, Sir Robert Kotewall, from their time in Hong Kong.
The current owner fondly remembers these pictures hanging in their house in Glasgow in the 1950s and subsequently inherited in the 1980s.
Footnote
He Chong from Nanhai, Guangdong was a Chinese painter of the late Qing Dynasty, was known for his landscape figure paintings and paintings of birds and flowers.