Eighteen Pieces of The Mustard Seed Garden Woodblock Prints
Kangxi Period, 1679

A rare group of eighteen woodblock color prints from the celebrated Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting (Jieziyuan Huazhuan), first published in 1679 during the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty. As one of the earliest and most influential instructional painting manuals in Chinese art history, the Mustard Seed Garden Manual occupies a central place in the development of Chinese painting education, publishing, and color woodblock printing.

The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting was compiled under the direction of Shen Xinyou, son-in-law of the renowned playwright, publisher, and cultural figure Li Yu (1611–1680), and illustrated principally by Wang Gai, together with Wang Shi, Wang Nie, Zhu Sheng, and others. Named after Li Yu’s garden and publishing house in Nanjing, the manual was designed to teach the methods of Chinese painting through carefully organized examples, including landscape, trees, rocks, plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, flowers, birds, insects, and other traditional subjects.

The 1679 edition represents the earliest and most historically important phase of the Mustard Seed Garden tradition. Printed in color by woodblock, the work demonstrates the technical refinement of early Qing dynasty printing, using multiple blocks to achieve delicate variations of tone, line, and color. Its importance lies not only in its artistic quality, but also in its role as a practical visual textbook that made the language of Chinese painting widely accessible to students, scholars, craftsmen, and collectors.

For more than three centuries, the Mustard Seed Garden Manual has served as the foundational guide for learning Chinese painting. Generations of artists studied its pages as an introduction to brushwork, composition, and pictorial structure. Qi Baishi famously treasured his copy, while many later painters regarded the manual as their first teacher. Its influence extended beyond China to Japan, Korea, and the wider world, shaping the study and reception of Chinese painting throughout East Asia.

As works from the 1679 Kangxi edition, the present eighteen prints are especially significant. They preserve the original clarity, elegance, and instructional purpose of the early Mustard Seed Garden publication, before later reprintings and reinterpretations altered the designs. They are not merely decorative prints, but rare documents of one of the great monuments of Chinese art publishing and one of the most important achievements in the history of Chinese woodblock color printing.

Notably, two of the prints in the present group bear the collection provenance of Charles Frederick Ramus (1902–1979), the Denver artist, curator, scholar, and collector. Ramus was associated with the Denver Art Museum and the University of Denver, and built a wide-ranging collection that included European, American, Latin American, Native American, and Asian works of art. This provenance adds further historical interest to the group.

{Approximate Dimensions - each sight: 9 3/4 x 12 inches (24.7 x 30.5 cm)}.

《芥子园画传》木版水印版画十八幅
清康熙十八年（1679年）刊本

本组十八幅版画出自《芥子园画传》，为中国艺术史、出版史与印刷史上最具影响力的经典著作之一。《芥子园画传》初刊于清康熙十八年（1679），由清初著名文士沈心友主持编纂，画家王概、王蓍、王臬三兄弟及诸升等人共同绘制刊刻。其名取自著名文学家、戏剧家李渔在南京的园林与书铺“芥子园”，是中国历史上第一部系统教授绘画技法的画学教材，被誉为“中国画的启蒙教科书”。

《芥子园画传》内容涵盖山水、树石、梅、兰、竹、菊、花卉、翎毛、草虫等中国绘画的主要题材，通过分步骤图示与画法讲解，将历代名家的笔墨技巧系统化、规范化，使初学者能够循序渐进地掌握中国画的基本方法。自问世以来三百余年间，它一直是学习中国绘画最重要的范本之一，对中国、日本、朝鲜半岛乃至整个东亚地区的艺术教育产生了深远影响。

从印刷史角度而言，《芥子园画传》同样具有划时代意义。其采用精湛的木版彩色套印技术，通过多块版木分别印制不同颜色与层次，最大程度地还原原作的笔墨神韵与设色效果，代表了清代前期雕版彩色印刷艺术的最高成就之一。著名版本学家赵万里曾评价其初印本“用开化纸套色精印，绚丽夺目”，并称其为“画学津梁”，足见其在中国文化史上的重要地位。

《芥子园画传》的影响远远超出了绘画领域。数百年来，无数画家、书法家、工艺美术家以及民间匠人都从中汲取灵感，其图像被广泛运用于陶瓷、雕刻、织绣、园林设计及装饰艺术之中。近现代以来，齐白石称其为“宝贝”，潘天寿视其为启蒙老师，李可染少年时甚至抱着《芥子园画传》入睡。鲁迅亦曾购得一部作为礼物赠予许广平，可见其在中国文化界享有崇高地位。

与此同时，《芥子园画传》很早便传入日本，并被当地书商争相翻刻出版，对日本浮世绘的发展产生重要影响。学界普遍认为，包括葛饰北斋、歌川广重等在内的日本版画大师均曾受到《芥子园画传》与《十竹斋画谱》的启发。随着浮世绘传入欧洲，这一源自中国的视觉传统又进一步影响了十九世纪西方版画艺术与印象派绘画的发展，使《芥子园画传》成为中国艺术走向世界的重要媒介之一。

本组作品保存了康熙时期《芥子园画传》的经典图像，不仅展现出中国传统绘画的审美趣味与教学体系，也见证了中国木版彩色印刷技术的辉煌成就。作为中国古代画谱的巅峰之作，其艺术价值、文献价值与文化史意义均不可低估。

值得注意的是，本组作品中有两幅曾为美国艺术家、艺术史学者及收藏家 Charles Frederick Ramus（1902–1979）旧藏。Ramus 曾任职于丹佛艺术博物馆及丹佛大学，长期致力于版画研究与收藏，其收藏涵盖欧洲、美洲及亚洲艺术。该来源进一步丰富了本组作品的收藏与流传历史。

{每幅画心约：高9 3/4 × 宽12英寸（24.7 × 30.5厘米）}。

For condition report, please contact the Asian Art Department.