Posted By: Bill H
Posted Date: Dec 05, 2018 (05:10 PM)
Recently, I'd run across an online sketch regarding Wang Qi, which piece is provided below in Chinese with my rough translation. The last line mentions the artist's use of his two-character seal of Wang Qi (王琦). The only stand-alone seal of this type I've seen on an authenticated work of Wang's is shown in the photo below. The seal on your painting in fact does say "Wang Qi", using a small red-on-white "Qi" character overlying a larger "Wang" character in white-on-red format. Such a stylized arrangement is found in the middle of Wang's often used four-character seal of "Xi Chang Wang Qi" (西昌王奇), but as shown in the second image below, all characters are rendered in white-on-red.
王琦（1884-1937），民国时期景德镇绘瓷名家，珠山八友之首。号碧野，别号陶谜道人，斋名陶陶斋，江西新建人。早期以没骨法画佛像，后以钱慧安仕女画为蓝本绘工笔粉彩，中年后学黄慎画风，改画写意人物，用笔挥洒奔放，冠绝一时。其瓷绘作品曾在1015年巴拿马万国博览会上获一等奖。早期作品多不书款，仅画图章，中年后作品均有较长的草书题记。传世品甚多。常用印有 ”王琦” ,”啕迷” ,”洗心斋”,”碧山” “碧珍”,“王琦画印”等
Wang Qi (1884-1937), the Republic of China period, Jingdezhen porcelain painting masters, first among the Eight Friends of Zhushan. Alias, ‘Jade green wilderness’ (碧野 – Bi ye); other alias, the ‘Mysterious Daoist devotee in the pot’ (陶謎道人 – Tao mi dao ren); Studio name, Studio (陶陶齋 – Taotao Zhai). Native of Xinjian county in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Early on, lacking strength of brush strokes, he painted Buddha images. After the Empress dowager made the beautiful paintings of court ladies by Qian Huian (1833-1911) a blueprint for the famille rose palette, and after scholar Huang Shen’s painting style, he quickly changed painting techniques to that of freehand, relaxed figures, done with unrestrained brushstrokes. Wang’s porcelain paintings won first prize at the 1915 Panama World Exposition. Marks on these early works were not written but stamped. In his middle years, works are prefaced with longer cursive inscriptions. Frequently used seals include: ‘Wang Qi’ (王琦), ‘Wailing in bewilderment’ (Tao mi – 啕迷), ‘Fasting to cleanse the heart’ (洗心
齋), (碧珍 – Bi Zhen) Precious green jade, ‘Seal of a painting by Wang Qi’ (王琦画印 – Wang Qi hua yin), etc.
Best regards,
Bill H.
