Exhibited: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Chinese Jades from the Hartman Collection, August 2003–December 2004 (by repute). Although no catalog was produced for the exhibition, the Museum later honored the Hartmans by naming an entire suite of exhibtion rooms after them, opening the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013.

China, 1736-1795. Deeply undercut and hollowed to create a striking interplay of light and shadow, depicting Abhedya seated in a grotto beside a smoking censer, holding a sutra scroll in his right hand, below twisting tree roots growing through the cave’s ceiling, surrounded by craggy rockwork issuing lingzhi and gnarled leafy branches of wutong and pine. The reverse with a deer hidden in a recess as well as further pine and lilngzhi. The partly translucent stone of a greenish-white color with a distinct russet skin.

With a remarkably well-carved and matching 18^th century openwork aloeswood stand. (2)

Provenance: From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York. Alan Hartman (1930-2023) was an influential American art dealer, who took over his parents’ antique business in Manhattan and established the legendary Rare Art Gallery on Madison Avenue, with further locations in Dallas and Palm Beach. His wife Simone (née Horowitz) already served as assistant manager of the New York gallery before the couple married in 1975, and together they built a renowned collection for over half a century and became noted art patrons, enriching the collections of important museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (which opened the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013) as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum in New York. Alan Hartman has been described as the greatest antiques dealer of our generation, and was widely recognized as a world authority in Chinese jade, bronzes, and Asian works of art.
Condition: Very good condition. The jade with minor wear, few minute losses to the reverse near the base, the stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into small hairline cracks. The aloeswood stand with few natural age cracks, nicks, and light surface scratches. The bottom plate of the aloeswood stand is a later addition.

Weight: 5.5 kg (excl. stand), 6.1 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 26.2 cm (excl. stand), 29.7 cm (incl. stand)

This fantastic jade sculpture depicts an arhat – a Buddhist adept who attained enlightenment – meditating or reading a sutra inside a rocky cave. Although they are considered holy in India, arhats only became figures of devotion when Buddhism spread to Tibet. Amongst these figures, a group of sixteen has been singled out as the most revered, and as Tibetan Buddhism was adopted by the Qing Imperial court to be the primary religion, these sixteen figures were frequently depicted in different media. The current jade boulder depicts the sixteenth of this group, Abhedya. He is shown holding a sutra in one hand seated beside an incense burner and incense box, a composition taken from a 10th century painting by Monk Guanxiu, which the Qianlong emperor viewed in the Shengyin Temple in Hangzhou during his Southern Tours in 1757. The experience of viewing these paintings greatly inspired him and he composed a series of poems accompanying each of the arhats the next year. The depiction of the Sixteen Luohan in Guanxiu’s style was also frequently seen on Imperial works of art, such as a massive screen in the Palace Museum.

The present lot belongs to an important group of closely related related Imperial jade carvings carved with a luohan in a mountain grotto. During the Qianlong reign, the Emperor requested that jade mountains, as well as plaques and panels with mountainous landscapes, should take their artistic influence from the work of famous painters. The subject's popularity during this period may have been further boosted by a woodblock print of a jade carving of a luohan amongst rocks from the Gu yu tu pu, attributed to the Southern Song period, but 18th century, and illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade, 1995, p. 411, fig. 2.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related jade luohan in a grotto, dated to the late 18^th century, 31.8 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 21.175.145.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 15 May 2018, lot 94
Price: GBP 728,750 or approx. EUR 1,206,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A greenish-white jade ‘luohan and grotto’ group, Qianlong period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject, motifs, and manner of carving. Note the size (22 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 23 September 2020, lot 653
Price: USD 100,800 or approx. EUR 117,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A pale celadon and russet jade ‘luohan’ boulder, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject, motifs, and manner of carving. Note the different size (12.7 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, 15 December 2011, lot 248
Price: EUR 102,750 or approx. EUR 126,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A calcified gray and brown jade sculpture of a luohan in a mountain, China, Qing dynasty, 18^th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject, motifs, and manner of carving.