Eighteen lohans and a few servants are portrayed in the pai-miao or outline style.
Signatures:
Signed: Fang-chou Wu Fang. (fang-chou or "square boat," represents the two graphological components of the character Fang as it is written in Wu Fang's name.)
Marks:
Two seals accompany the artist's signature. There are no collectors' seals.
Inscriptions:
The artist's inscription states that the work is done in imitation of a painting by Yu-ch'uan shan-jen, who may be the 16th century professional painter Tai Chin (Fu Yu-ch'uan shan-jen "Chieh ta huan-hsi t'u").
Provenance:
To 1960
Chen Rentao (1906-1968), Hong Kong, and Frank Caro, C. T. Loo & Co., New York, to 1960 [1]
From 1960 to 1979
U.S. Customs Service, Department of the Treasury [2]
From 1979
Freer Gallery of Art, from October 23, 1979 [3]
[1] This object is one of a group of 88 objects (F80.104-F80.180, FSC-S-22-25 and FSC-O-11a-h) seized in 1960 by the U.S. Customs Service, Department of the Treasury, from the dealer and collector Chen Rentao, Hong Kong and Frank Caro of C. T. Loo & Co., New York.
The objects were deemed to have been introduced into the commerce of the United States in violation of 19 U.S.C. 1592 (Trade with Communist China).
[2] See note 1. The object’s ownership title is based on the settlement agreement, dated November 1971, between the United States, Chen Tung Siang Wen, the executrix for Chen Rentao Estate, and Frank Caro, copy in object file.
See U.S. Customs Service Memorandum, April 23, 1979 and a letter from Thadeus Rojek, Chief Counsel, Department of the Treasury, U.S. Custom Service, to Marie C. Malaro, Assistant General Counsel, Smithsonian Institution, dated November 29, 1979, copy in object file. The objects remained in the custody of the U.S. Customs Service office in New York until 1979.
[3] The object was transferred to the Freer Gallery of Art on October 23, 1979.
