YE YANLAN (1823-1898)
Copy of Luo Ping’s Ancient Etymologists
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
127.5 x 60 cm. (50 ¹⁄₄ x 23 ⁵⁄₈ in.)
Inscribed and signed, with two seals of the artist
Dated tenth month, bingzi, second year of the Guangxu period (1876)

NOTE:
Ye Yanlan, courtesy name Nanxue and Lantai, was a native of Panyu, Guangdong Province. He was the grandfather of Ye Gongchuo. Ye was good at calligraphy and literature.

REVERED AND EXEMPLARY — PROPERTY FROM THE YE GONGCHUO FAMILY COLLECTION

Born in Tianjin in 1916, Julia Yeh was the only child of the statesman, scholar, connoisseur and poet Ye Gongchuo (1881-1968). She attended the Qiming School for Girls in Shanghai where her schoolmates included Yang Jiang (1911-2016), the renowned essayist and translator. As a girl, Julia was a known for her adventurous spirit – she practised archery, played golf, performed in plays and was a keen equestrian. She was extremely close to her father; much of his personal poetry was dedicated to her. In the late 1930s, she lived briefly in Kunming where she was neighbours with the architects and architecture historians Liang Sicheng (1901-1972) and Lin Huiyin (1904-1955). Together with her cousin Ye Gongchao (George Yeh, 1904-1981), she played a significant role in the safe passage of the archaic bronze vessel, the Mao Gong Ding, during the war.
Julia joined her father in Hong Kong in 1948 and in March 1950, Ye Gongchuo returned to Beijing. The father and daughter remained in touch through letters and friends until his passing in 1968. Like her father and cousin, Julia was deeply committed to the preservation of China’s art and culture. In the four decades that followed she became a devoted custodian of the family collection of Chinese paintings, calligraphy and works of art, some of which are now housed in prestigious institutions in China and the US including the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Shanghai Museum, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Residing in North America, she returned to China in the 1990s to bequeath her father’s manuscripts and letters to the public. The present collection of cherished paintings and calligraphy, featuring twenty classical and three modern works, have remained in the family to date.