drawing

Unknown artist

One can see at a glance that this is an original work from the T'ang period. It is a sketch which — judging by the accompanying text — is intended as a greeting from a lady to a close relative, perhaps a proud mother's boasting about the achievements of her talented son. The fragment can best be described as a water-coloured drawing in Indian ink, on an uncut sheet of paper in the original size (23.5 X 40.5 cm.) it,had when it left the paper-maker's workshop. The central part of it is occupied by the figure of a standing woman, her head in half-profile, looking to the left. Her right hand is raised to her breast, holding a narrow ribbon, one end of which hangs far down along the dress. Her hair has been put up in the fashion which seems to have been prevalent among ladies of high society during the T'ang dynasty. Grave figures from this period show numerous variations of this fashion,, which, however, all have a common characteristic in that the hair falls in heavy pads around the head and is gathered up in a knot over the forehead. In our drawing, as in many other cases, the topknot is evidently wrapped in a piece of grey cloth and fastened with pins which can be glimpsed at the top .... At one side of the picture, another hand has written a row of bold characters reading in translation: "The ninth lady said — The son of the fourth elder sister began to learn drawing. Whenever the fourth elder sister thinks of her son, she looks (may look) at this." The sketch bears witness that the son of the fourth elder sister was really well advanced in his art. His drawing is lifelike, sensitive, and sure in style. Perhaps this may be an anonymous early work of one of the great artists of the period (Montell 1950)