A Tibetan Thangka Painting of the Tree of Refuge for Gelug Buddhism

lote/a tibetan thangka painting of the tree of refuge for gelug buddhism CE63c4x 632680083 / En venta

lote/a tibetan thangka painting of the tree of refuge for gelug buddhism CE63c4x 632680083

En ventaHistorial de precios

lote/a tibetan thangka painting of the tree of refuge for gelug buddhism CE63c4x 632680083

En ventaHistorial de precios

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A Tibetan Thangka Painting of the Tree of Refuge for Gelug Buddhism

18th- 19th century, mineral pigments and gold on cotton, this monumental painting following traditional iconography features a tree that rises from its roots at the base of the composition, wrathful dharma protectors (mahakalas) guard the tree surrounded by a lotus-and-jewel ground populated with offering figures, the tree trunk ascends widening into a dense cloud filled with a mass of hundreds of minutely painted figures: meditational deities, arhats, and bodhisattvas, at the top of the tree cloud sits its principal figure: Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), founder of the Gelug school, featured as a lama enthroned before a green aureole and gold nimbus, wearing the pointed yellow pandita hat of the Gelug order and flanked by lotus blossoms bearing a sword and a text, the whole painting is framed by numerous silk and brocade borders, presented under glass in wood frame. Frame dimensions 57 x 33 x 1 in., Image size 29 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. From the Collection of William Arthur and Ferol Smith, Pennsylvania, and by descent William Arthur Smith (1918–1989) was an American artist, illustrator, portraitist, and international cultural ambassador whose work was profoundly influenced by his experiences in Asia. He began his professional career in New York in the late 1930s, where he illustrated books, ghostwrote the comic strip Polly and Her Pals, and taught at the Grand Central School of Art. From the 1940s through the mid-1960s, his illustrations appeared frequently in The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook, and he created advertising art for companies including Coca-Cola, Remington, U.S. Steel, John Hancock, and Dow Chemical. During World War II, Smith served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in China. His years in China had a lasting influence on his artistic interests and his subsequent engagement with Asia. After the war, he and his wife, artist Ferol Stratton, lived in Paris from 1949 to 1951. Smith's involvement with international art and cultural exchange expanded throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He lectured in Athens, Manila, and Warsaw and served as an official delegate to the International Association of Art in Venice in 1954. In 1958, he traveled to the Soviet Union as a member and official delegate under a cultural exchange agreement. He subsequently traveled extensively throughout Asia on State Department-sponsored cultural exchanges, lecturing and exhibiting his work in countries including the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar), Nepal, India, Japan, and Turkey. Smith was also a collector of Asian art, reflecting his sustained personal and professional interest in the region. He moved from New York to Pineville, Pennsylvania, in 1956. His work is held in the collections of numerous museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Michener Art Museum, and Norman Rockwell Museum. The Thangka was purchased in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1964. For similar Gelug school refuge tree thangkas sold at auction, see: Sotheby's, New York, September 22, 2020, Lot 305, Bonhams, London, May 11, 2017, Lot 19, and for this Thangka subject in a museum collection see Tree (Field) of Refuge for Geluk Tibetan Buddhist Tradition, Rubin Museum of Art, Gift of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation (F1997.37.1). The painted surface exhibits extensive stable craquelure consistent with age; some pigment loss along crack lines most visible in the central figure's robe and aureole; the brown outer silk shows scattered staining and a repaired tear along the lower proper-right edge.

Estimación:€1,582.65

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