PROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERS A PAIR OF FIGURAL PORCELAIN PLAQUES DEPICTING LI BAI AND TAO YUANMINGRepublic period Of tall rectangular form, the first depicting the poet Li Bai as a slightly disheveled scholar holding a cup towards the moon beneath a wutong tree while a boy acolyte holds a wine ewer nearby, the inscription including the signature He Xuren as well as red seals reading Xuren and He Chu with additional seal reading qinglian zuijiu ; the second depicting the elderly Tao Yuanming beneath a gnarled tree, peering down at the basket of chrysanthemums proffered by a boy attendant, the inscription including the signature reading He Chu as well as red seals reading Xu Ren and He Chu with additional red seal on the bottom of the plaque reading Yuanming cai ju . 31 3/8 x 7 7/8in (79.7 x 20cm) sight (2). He Xuren, sobriquet He Chu (1882-1941), was a member of the Eight Friends of Zhushan school of porcelain painters, known almost exclusively for his snow scenes. In fact, examples of He's work of any subject matter without snow seem to be relatively rare: see the tiny seals depicting spring landscapes offered as lot 360 in Christies South Kensington sale of 12 May 2017 or the small moonflask depicting river landscapes offered as lot 304 in Sotheby's London sale of 5 November 2014. Unlike those two and other examples offered by in the past, the present lot is more reminiscent of the best work of He's mentor and teacher, Wang Qi; for instance, note the stunning juxtaposition of the hyper-realistic faces with the more stylized scholarly attire. The only hints of He Xuren's characteristic grisaille technique, typically deployed in his snow scenes, are in the small depiction of the dusty and smoky moonlit night at the upper left corner of the Li Bai plaque.