Large late Ming - early Qing Painting

This large scroll depicts “Mi Fei Bai Shi” (米芾拜石), i.e., the Song Dynasty (1051 – 1107 AD) high official and scholar Mi Fei (米芾) treasuring and worshiping Tai Fu Shi (the scholar rock from Lake Tai Fu, 太湖石).  The painter signed as Chen Hong Shou (陳洪綬, 1598 – 1652 AD), who is one of the most accomplished painters of rocks.  The painting has two signed colophons; no info about these authors is available, with one in the writing style of Qianlong Emperor and the other in the style of Lian Shee Zhen (梁詩正, Qianlong’s ghostwriter), suggesting the colophons were written during late Qianlong period or shortly thereafter, when these styles became popular.  The rice paper painting is mounted on a fine quality and soft bending-flowing silk called “dwan” (緞).   Minor wear-&-tear to the lower right corner of the painting and a minute part of the edge of the mounting material has been chewed away by silverfish due to 350 years of aging.  
陳洪綬畫米芾拜石圖

Size: 26 in. (66.04 cm.) W x 89 in. (226.06 cm.) L

Provenance: From a major California collector.