Anyone have ANY information on Xi Yuan Shan?

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Hi all

I would appreciate any info on Xi Yuan Shan. He supposedly was a middle period painter but his output seems to have been limited.  I cant find ANY reference to him in any of the books/catalogs I have nor on the internet (in English anyway).

Bill (www.snuffbottlecollector.com) has one bottle of him, and I have two. 

http://snuffbottlecollector.com/shi_yuan_shan/shi_yuan_shan_1.htm

As Bill indicates his painting is very similar to Yong Shou Tien.  I have a smilar bottle to the one on Bill's site that is ALL fighting scene (more like Yong Shou Tien style) and another that is ALL landscape/scenery (not at all like Yong Shou Tien).

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hello  Pat

We discussed   this morning.    The   artsist's   family    name  is   definitely  XI   (not SHI  as on  Bill's website)

The  only info  I have  is what is on Bill's website

I     had  wrongly assumed  he  is  a minor  Modern   artist, but   now  it seems he  is a  Middle period

Cheers  Peter @ HK

[Pat - 查尚杰]

And the plot thickens.  In an article I just found written in Arts of Asia Magazine Nov/Dec 1976, on the Shandong school, it appears that in the A. Stempel collection (author of the article) at that time, there was a bottle signed Xi Yuan Shan Shen - West Garden Mountain Man (no 'made by' character).  He states that this was the art name/pen name/alias of Pu Shin Yu, the cousin of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, who became a well known scroll artist later and who's works are quite popular.  He states: "Pu Shin Yu was never known to have painted an inside bottle in his life........  There is a possibility of course that the bottle was painted for the emperor's cousin...... "

Interesting.. there are now 4 bottles with this name on it (A.Stempel, 2 of mine, and Bill's).... made 'for' or made 'by'

 

[snuffbottlecollector]

Interesting Pat!

I have added your comments to my web site. Check Xi Yuan Shan and let me know if you have objections. I'll have to check the Arts of Asia article. Are your bottles large as well? Mine is about 5" high.

[Pat - 查尚杰]

No objections at all Bill.  Both my bottles are the same size as yours, more or less.  The bottle highlighted in the magazine had a late 1800s Western warship (of all things) on one side and a landscape on the front (which the mag did not show), but this one is rectangular, while yours and mine are round.  I did forget to mention that my landscape bottle definetely looks like same style, same painter as your landscape side, and my fighting scene bottle is also same as yours, very much Yong Shou Tien style.  God, I need like a year long vacation (and stay in one place, which is even harder for me haha) to photograph all these.

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi Bill

The  pics  on   your  site   for Xi Yuan Shan   still  call  him  SHI  Yuan Shan

Cheers   Peter

[snuffbottlecollector]

Should be changed now.  Thanks.