SHEN QUAN (LATE QING DYNASTY)

WANG XIZHI EXCHANGING CALLIGRAPHY FOR GEESE

A Chinese fan painting, ink and colour on silk, inscribed and signed Shen Quan, with two artist's seals, together with a Ming dynasty leaf-shaped painting depicting the drunken poet Li Bai, ink and colour on silk, signed with one artist's seal, 24.5cm dia and 19.5cm x 30cm. (2)

Wang Xizhi was a famous calligrapher alive during the Jin dynasty. According to legend, Wang Xizhi practised the art of calligraphy so diligently that the river he washed his inkstone in eventually became black with the leftover ink. This painting depicts an episode where a Daoist monk asks Wang Xizhi to write the Huang Ting for him. In exchange for his highly skilled labour, Wang Xizhi requested that the monk give him geese as payment, as he particularly admired the long slender necks and elegance of these birds.