Bamboo and Rockery – Signed Zheng Banqiao

Dimensions: 27 5/8″(70.1cm) W, 81 5/8″(207.3cm) L
hanging scroll

郑板桥款 竹石图

Note:
Zheng Xie (1693–1765), commonly known as Zheng Banqiao, was a Chinese painter from Jiangsu. He began life in poverty, but rose in the exam system to become a magistrate at Shandong. However, after 12 years, he became critical of the life of an official as he refused to ingratiate himself with senior officials. When he was reportedly criticized for building a shelter for the poor, he resigned. After that, he expressed himself in art and became one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. He was noted for his drawing of orchids, bamboo, and stones. In 1748 he briefly resumed an official career as “official calligrapher and painter” for the Qianlong Emperor.

郑板桥（1693-1766），原名郑燮，字克柔，号理庵，又号板桥，人称板桥先生，江苏兴化人，祖籍苏州。 康熙秀才，雍正十年举人，乾隆元年（1736年）进士。 官山东范县、潍县县令，政绩显著，后客居扬州，以卖画为生，为“扬州八怪”重要代表人物。

Provenance: Collection of well known Canadian artist, patron and collector Leo Rosshandler (b. 1922).
Mr. Rosshandler’s career started in Europe and moved from Mexico City to Manhattan before finally settling in Montreal. Assistant director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the seventies (to which he has donated the larger part of his vast collection of pre-Columbian art) and later director of the Lavalin Collection until 1989. C. C. Wang, C. T. Loo and other major players in the world of 20th-century Chinese art were great friends of his, and helped to develop Leo’s literati taste in Chinese classical painting. Two great Ming masterpieces by Zhu Da 朱耷 (Ba Da Shanren 八大山人) left Leo’s collection in the 1980’s, sold by Sotheby’s New York, and more recently many others have been donated to museums in Canada. This small eclectic group represents the last few works that the Rosshandler’s treasured for sentimental and artistic reasons.

PLEASE NOTE THIS LOT IS TO BE OFFERED WITHOUT RESERVE.