AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS 'CRANES AND LANDSCAPE' SNUFF BOTTLE DING ERZHONG, 1896

Wing Hing, Hong Kong, 1985.

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1987, cat. no. 254.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.
Christie’s London, 1999.

Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 4, Hong Kong, 2000, no. 544.

Bottle: Good condition. Painting: Good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The painting of the cranes and pine is exquisite, as one has come to expect of Ding in all his mature works, the pine being superbly painted with widely varied ink-tones and lovely brushwork. Notice how he has offset the paler dead branch ends on the left-hand side above the cranes’ heads, where he draws them in outline without wash, against the dark, black, tensile lines of the opposite side. It is a seemingly minor touch to vary the style and brushwork of his branches, but creates a major impact in terms of the balance and texture of the painting.

Another clever touch in terms of formal balance is created by the vermilion of the sun echoed by the heads of the two cranes. The trees set up a powerful diagonal from lower right to upper left, while the ground plane creates an opposite diagonal, emphasized by the one crane leaning forward to peck at the ground. These three strong vermilion elements balance those diagonals with a third, less radical one that is picked up by the subsidiary branch of the upper tree trunk.

The consummate artist creates such formal balances often without conscious thought, but that ability to do so is a strong part of what makes a consummate artist, and there is no questioning Ding’s standing on this score. His compositional sense is as masterful as his technical skill.

There is possibly a hint of Ding’s debt to Zhou Leyuan in the predominantly blue palette here, which is unusual for his landscapes, although it occurs in other subjects from time to time (see, for instance, the pine and deer of Sale 6, lot 125). As a rule, where he used blue in his landscapes it was as a wash alternating with sepia in the traditional manner to allow separation between rock or mountain forms. This is obvious, for instance, in lot 193 in the present sale, where it is rewarding to switch off landscape perception and view the painting as an abstract made up primarily of form, colour, and line. Here, however, Ding uses blue on its own, varying only its strength in order to emphasize the forms. The style is still entirely his own, but the use of the blue palette gives the appearance of bringing it closer to Zhou’s, and one wonders whether he would have shifted out of the traditional literati use of blue in the landscape were it not for the influence of Zhou Leyuan.