James Cahill dies at 87; scholar of Chinese art

38. Viewing The Qingminu Scroll

Viewing and Photographing the Qingming Shanghe Tu Scroll

The first delegation of art historians to visit China after its opening by Nixon and Kissinger was the "Archaeology" delegation, led by Sherman Lee in the Fall of 1973. We had to be called "archaeologists" because art history wasn't a legitimate field of study then in China; in fact, only one of our group, Richard Rudolph, had ever engaged in real dirt archaeology. By 1977, when I led a follow-up "Old Chinese Painting" delegation, our calling had come to be recognized. The hosts of the 1973 delegation soon realized, however, that it was mostly paintings we really were excited by, and were very responsive to our requests. (We also, of course, had many great viewings of archaological objects, bronzes, and other treasures during our month-long tour.)

Immediately on our arrival, Sherman let them know that of all the paintings in China, the one we most wanted to see was the Qingming Shanghe Tu scrol, usually called in English (maybe erroneously) "Spring Festival on the River." Alas, we were told, that won't be possible, since it is undergoing remounting. This was a major disappointment, but greatly mollified by the large number of great early paintings we were able to view and photograph, both in special viewings and on exhibition, especially in the Hui-hua Kuan or "Painting Hall" in the Palace Museum in Beijing.—the large central building was still used for exhibition (later it was closed because the wear from being tramped through by the public was damagiing it, and afterwards all the paintings, old and new, had to be seen in the cramped and badly-lit corridors surrounding it.) Still, we fretted: no Qingming scroll on this trip.

By great good fortune Tom Chase, one of our delegation who was then heading the Freer Gallery's technical laboratory (successor to the late John Gettens), asked to see the restoration section at the Palace Museum, and one morning we were taken there. After rooms filled with objects of other kinds (including one of wind-up automata and musical clocks etc., with wonders such as a garden made of semi-precious stones with butterflies fluttering around the flowers—these were later on view in the "Treasures" gallery, but seldom played) we were taken to the painting mounting studio. There, hanging on the wall (pasted on a panel) was the "spirit robe" painting from the Marquess of Dai's tomb, and on a table the small late Zhou painting of a shameness with dragon from Changsha. These we photographed, with details (much used in lecturing afterwards.) And, in the painting mounting studio, there was the Qingming scroll lying, rolled up, on a long table. One of our number recognized it, with great excitement, and Sherman asked: can we open it and see it? and they said: sure, why not. So someone unrolled it full length on the table, and we all went crazy for the next seven or eight minutes, looking at it (in bad light) and making slides. I shot 55 slides, it turned out later; they were dark but visible, and could be copied lighter; again, these were much used in lectures in the years that followed.

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