Twelve Views of Tiger Hill

Hu Zhishou 胡之壽 [late 18th–mid 19th century]

Hou Shigong 侯士恭 [late 19th–early 20th century]

?-1964(Walter Hochstadter [1914–2007], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Overall: 36.5 x 49.9 公分 (14 3/8 x 19 5/8 英吋)

[印] 启南; 石田
Artist's seals: Qi'nan (1 on each leaf); Shitian (1 on fourth and twelfth leaves).
1 colophon and 1 seal of Yao Yuanzhi 姚元之 (1776-1852).

The brushwork of this album is aged and powerful. It is so vigorous that it gives you a feeling of the mist and clouds when looking at it. It could not be done by any other than the old master, Shen Zhou. Formerly the album was in the collection of Hu Zhishou's 胡之壽 family. After many changes of hands, it came finally into the possession of Ligeng 笠耕, the Keeper of the Imperial Stable [that is, Binliang 斌良, Manchurian poet-calligrapher, later the Imperial Resident in Lhasa, Tibet, 1784-1847]. Not long ago, when its former owner Zhishou came to visit me and found the album in my study, he sighed in nostalgia and told me that there were originally an inscription and colophons in the album which are now lost. Song Luo 宋犖 [zi 牧仲, 1634-1713] once had a poem by Shen Shitian on the painting of Tiger Hill. [The poem is missing from the album.] It must be a poem written for this album. However, according to Song's own title, the poem was composed after the rhymes and meter of the original poem on the album. Now there is no poem whatsoever in the frontispiece or at the end of the album. Is this what Zhishou meant - that the original colophons and inscriptions are missing?

Ligeng, the Keeper of the Imperial Stable, has asked me for a colophon. The album has been left on my desk since last year. How time has passed! On the first day of the jiashen year 甲申 [1824], I returned from the Court Audience. The plum trees in the pots have started to blossom with their first fragrance. How much has this added to my enjoyment of the painting! I therefore write down a few words for your criticism.

[signed] the Student of the Grass Leaf Pavilion, Yao Yuanzhi.
3 seals of Hou Shigong 侯士恭 [late 19th–early 20th century]. (1 each on the colophon, seventh, and eleventh leaves).

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