About the Cover

details: Qian Hui’an, Su Shi (Su Dongpo) Admiring Ink Stones, late nineteenth century. One leaf from an album of nine leaves; ink and light colors on paper, H. 26.4 cm x W. 32.9 cm. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Dr. Arnold Knapp, 1956.122.3. Photo: Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

We have chosen for the cover of this issue of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies a late nineteenth-century painting by Qian Hui’an 錢慧安 (1833–1911), entitled Su Shi (Su Dongpo) Admiring Ink Stones (Poxian pin yan tu 坡僲品研圖). We always aim to pick a cover image from the rich collections of the Harvard Art Museums and Harvard Yenching Library that connects somehow to the issue’s content, but the tiein is particularly strong with this painting. Thomas Kelly’s contribution, “The Death of an Artisan: Su Shi and Ink Making,” discusses the famed Northern Song poet and scholar Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101) and his engagement with the material culture of literary production. Su Shi was a man who knew and appreciated inkstones.

The painting’s Chinese title refers to Su Shi not by his name, but rather as Immortal Po (Poxian 坡僲). This respectful sobriquet—rendered using a rare variant of xian 仙, the usual character for “immortal”—is an elegant take on Dongpo 東坡, one of Su Shi’s many self-chosen artistic names, or hao 號. The painting bears the inscription, “A sketch for Teacher Lan Tianshu [from] the Woodcutter of Qing Creek, Qian Hui’an” (Lüe shi Lan Tianshu Qingxi qianzi Qian Hui’an 略師藍田叔清谿樵子錢慧安); the Woodcutter of Qing Creek is Qian Hui’an’s own artistic name.

The painter, Qian Hui’an, lived and worked in the vicinity of Shanghai. He was known best for his portrayals of human figures, particularly beautiful women, but he produced landscapes as well. He worked in a style that mixed brushstrokes typical of traditional Chinese painting with shading, linear perspective, and other typically Western techniques. The painting featured on the cover comes from an album of nine leaves in the Harvard collection. It is the only painting in the album that portrays a named historical figure; the others portray men, women, and children doing things like fishing, watching cranes, and looking at the sky. Perhaps Qian Hui’an included a historical figure in this one painting because he meant it as a gift to his teacher. HJAS thanks the Harvard Art Museums for their kind permission to reproduce the image.

DLH