Xiang Yuanbian 項元汴 (1525-1590)

A fan painting in ink on gold paper, bamboo and rock, circa 1560s-80s. 

Xiang's poetic couplet reads:

Dense, dense, the nodes of 'this gentleman'

Grand, grand, the wind (manner) of the ancients.

Signed: Xiang Yuanbian, with one gourd-shaped seal of the artist: Zijing. 

Painted area: 16.5 x 51 cm (6 ½ x 20 inches). 

Xiang Yuanbian, zi: Zijing; hao: Molin, etc., was the greatest collector and connoisseur of paintings and antiquities of the late Ming dynasty, but he also painted quite extensively; typically ink landscapes and such small-scale studies as this fan.  From Jiaxing, Zhejiang, he was the cultural rival of his fellow townsman Li Rihua (1565-1635), an important paintings theorist; and the survival of their two art families through the Ming-Qing transition is fascinating to observe.  His grandson Xiang Shengmo (1597-1658) was one of the early Qing's finest painters.

Two collectors’ seals: one of Wu Yuanhui (early-mid 19th century), the other of Liang Huiwu (early 20th century).    

The fan was subsequently in the collection of Qiu Yan (Edward T. Chow), 1910-1980.