Two Fighting Water Buffaloes
date: label: Date
content: 13th-14th century
label: Period
content: Southern Song or Yuan dynasty
notes: label: Provenance
content: Possibly An Qi (An Yizhou, ca. 1683-ca. 1744) [1]
label: Provenance
content: Possibly Hongli, the Qianlong emperor (reigned 1735-96) (1711-1799) [2]
label: Provenance
content: To 1915
label: Provenance
content: Pang Yuanji (1864-1949), Shanghai [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1915 to 1970
label: Provenance
content: Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) and Agnes E. Meyer (1887-1970), New York, NY, Washington, DC, and Mt. Kisco, NY, purchased through C. T. Loo & Co. from Pang Yuanji on May 15, 1915 [4]
label: Provenance
content: From 1970 to 1992
label: Provenance
content: Ruth Meyer Epstein (1921-2007), Scarsdale, NY, by descent from her mother, Agnes E. Meyer
label: Provenance
content: From 1992
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, given by Ruth Meyer Epstein in 1992 [5]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] An Qi’s collector seal is located on the painting. The colophon written by Lu Hui (1851-1920) is mounted on the back of the frame. Lu Hui states that this is the same painting which appears in An Qi’s catalogue Moyuan huiguan, under the name of Dai Song and cites a passage from the collector’s catalogue. F1992.43 meets all the particulars specified in An Qi’s catalogue entry, especially in overall description of the composition and in the identification and placement of four of its seven seals. However, there is one discrepancy: An Qi’s entry includes mention of the water buffaloes “red starring eyes,” the element which does not correspond with the Freer Gallery painting. See An Qi, Moyuan huiguan (Beijing: Liulichang, Hanwen Zhai, 1914), 1b-2a. For annotated translation of the catalogue entry see Thomas Lawton, “An Eighteenth Century Chinese Catalogue of Calligraphy and Painting,” thesis (Harvard University, 1970), vol. 1, p. 51-52, vol. 3, p. xix-xx.
label: Provenance
content: [2] Two seals used during the reign of the Qianlong emperor are located on the painting. However, the painting is not listed in the standard catalogues of the Qianlong imperial collection.
label: Provenance
content: [3] The painting is listed with detailed description in the bilingual catalogue compiled by Pang on the occasion of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, Pang Lai Ch’en [Pang Yuanji], Biographies of Famous Chinese Paintings: From the Private Collections of L.C. Pang, Che-kiang, China (Shanghai: Mercantile Printing Co., 1915), p. 12-13: “Tai Sung, Bull-Fight.”
label: Provenance
content: [4] The scroll was among the paintings brought by Pang Yuanji with the assistance of his cousin Pang Zanchen and the dealer C. T. Loo, to the United States on the occasion of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, see Pang Lai Ch’en [Pang Yuanji] 1915, p. 12-13. The Meyers examined the painting in New York prior to its transfer to San Francisco in April 1915, see Eugene Meyer’s telegram to Charles L. Freer, April 30, 1915, Eugene Meyer Papers, Library of Congress, copy in object file.
label: Provenance
content: [5] See Ruth Meyer Epstein’s Deed of Gift, dated July 9, 1992, copy in object file.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: An Qi
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Hongli, the Qianlong emperor 乾隆帝 (1711-1799)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Pang Yuanji 龐元濟 (1864-1949)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Mrs. Ruth Meyer Epstein (1921-2007)
place: label: Origin
content: China
topic: label: Topic
content: water buffalo
label: Topic
content: Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279)
label: Topic
content: Yuan dynasty (1279 - 1368)
label: Topic
content: battle
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Ruth Meyer Epstein
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1992.43
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ink and colors on silk
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (image): 148 x 74 cm (58 1/4 x 29 1/8 in)