Five Studies of Orchids From the Shizhuzhai Shuhuapu,

 
Five Studies of Orchids
From the Shizhuzhai Shuhuapu (Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Calligraphy and Painting)
China, circa 1700
 
Five Studies of Orchids from the Shizhuzhai Shuhuapu (Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Calligraphy and Painting), circa 1700. A leaf from one of the most celebrated printed works in Chinese art history, the Shizhuzhai Shuhuapu was first produced in Nanjing in 1633 by the scholar-printer Hu Zhengyan using the revolutionary douban technique, in which colours were applied directly to woodcut blocks to achieve gradations of tone that closely imitated the quality of hand-brushed painting. This leaf, from the orchid section of the manual, presents five studies of the flower in varying positions and stages of bloom, each rendered with extraordinary economy and elegance, accompanied by calligraphic annotations identifying the compositions. A date of around 1700 places this impression at the very end of the first printing from the original blocks, making it an early and desirable example of a work held in the collections of the British Museum, Harvard Art Museums and Princeton University Library, and described by scholars as perhaps the most beautiful set of prints ever made. Presented in a simple metal frame under glass, the sheet retaining its original tissue paper backing.