A VERY PALE GREEN JADE BOULDER

18th century

18th century
Crisply carved as a craggy mountain strewn with pine and wutong trees, two bearded sages climb a narrow mountain path up towards a pavilion, all beneath two flying cranes, the reverse with a deer, the stone of very pale green tone with an emerald-green patch on the reverse. 15cm (5 7/8in) high.

十八世紀 玉雕仙人鹿鶴同春山子

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 28 April 1993, lot 643

來源：香港蘇富比，1993年4月28日，拍品編號643

The present lot is a fine example of the sensitivity of the 18th century carvers in their use of the natural form of the stone to portray a literati-style landscape scene. During the Qianlong reign, the Emperor instructed that jade mountains, as well as plaques and panels with scenes of mountainous landscapes, take their artistic influence from the work of famous painters. The personal interest of the Emperor, as well as the increased availability of large pieces of Khotan jade after the pacification of the area in 1759, prompted a proliferation of production of jade boulders of varying sizes exquisitely carved with delicate mountain scenes resembling literati landscape paintings.

See a related pale green and russet jade boulder with sages among a mountain path, Qing dynasty, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, pp.156-157, no.47. Compare also the present carving to a group of jade mountains carved with landscape motifs from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in the Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade, 8, Beijing, 2011, nos.95-98.