Luohan bed with marbles
In June 2022, in partnership with the Jacques Barrère gallery, the Luohan gallery will pay homage to a very controversial character, both a great writer and a famous collector of Asian art. Within the exhibition of Celestial Horses presented by the Jacques Barrère gallery, the Luohan gallery will exhibit within the walls of rue Mazarine, an exceptional piece from the former collection of Paul Morand, a bed by Luohan in lacquer with a black background, adorned with mother-of-pearl and Dali marbles.
Between horses and characters running from the Han dynasty to the Tang, the compact and robust shape of our piece seems to float on its small polyhedral cushions. This powerful and light look marks the social status of its owner. The decor made up of an exceptional set of marbles mounted on the backrest and the armrests reveals his literate education.
These “dream stones” evoke mountainous landscapes, where only traces can be seen through the clouds. These powerful images are born from a remarkable work in Indian ink on the natural design of the marble. Using a wide range of strokes and touches, the painter reveals the deep veins of the stone. Alongside long, dense strokes and faded washes, small close-up strokes produce the speckled effects of different textures and rocky roughness. On the back, the central panel reveals gentle, distant hills, while on either side, fiery torrents tear the steep slopes of the side plates. On the armrests, sharp peaks awaken the misty lakes.
The diversity of this album is expressed in a coherence that reveals the mastery of the artist and the sensitivity of his sponsor. Faithful to the literate tradition, the painter has produced a work that is both elegant and powerful.
Rare are the pieces of furniture where this work is still visible today. Excessive cleaning has often blurred it, or even completely erased it. Its great artistic quality undoubtedly required this exceptional preservation.
Widening our gaze beyond borders and time, under the effects of a human, universal sensitivity, the art of the brush, the atmospheric effects and the strange deformations evoke, here, almost naturally the work of impressionist and modern European painters. . We lend ourselves to imagining the poet Paul Morand languid on this layer, lost in the troubled geography of these imagined paradises.
Black lacquer encrusted with mother-of-pearl, armrests and backrest decorated with Dali marble slabs, veins enhanced with Indian ink.
Qing dynasty (1644-1911) late XNUMXth century, China, Shanxi province
220 x 124 x H110.5cm=8+43+59.5cm
Origin :
Former collection of Paul Morand, sold in November 1977 by Ader-Picard-Tajan.
References :
Reproduced by a drawing in “Le Mobilier Chinois”, C. and M. Beurdeley, Office du Livre 1979, page 120.
A model in huanghuali kept at the National Historical Museum in Beijing, presents a similar composition of the armrests and the backrest.