Lot 290

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A private collection, Melbourne.

Pu Ru (1896-1963), a Manchu native of Beijing, was a modern master of Chinese painting. His fame in painting was such that he was paired with the Sichuan painter Zhang Daqian as "Zhang of the South and Pu of the North," and likewise with Wu Hufan as "Wu of the South and Pu of the North." Pu Ru styled himself Xin She and also adopted the sobriquets Xihuang Shangren ("Man of Xi Huang") and Xishan Yishi ("Hermit of the Western Hills"). Born into the imperial family, he was a great-grandson of Prince Gong Yixin, the sixth son of the Daoguang Emperor, and belonged to the Aisin Gioro clan.
Pu Jingqiu (dates unknown), also known by the sobriquet Song Ying, was a member of the Qing imperial clan and the younger sister of Pu Jin, commonly referred to as the "Fifteenth Aunt." Along with Pu Ru and Pu Jin, she was an important painter of the Beijing-Tianjin school during the Republican period. She specialized in meticulous depictions of insects, particularly butterflies, executed in the gongbi style. Her works are admired for their graceful charm and lively spirit.