Chinese Scholar rock from the Republic period (1912–1949)

Dark natural stone on a custom-made rosewood base

Dimensions: H. 39 cm – W. 35 cm – D. 29 cm

This Chinese scholar's stone, also known as Gongshi, is a natural sculpture of rare visual power. Its dark surface, polished by time, forms an almost perfect circular arch, a central void that becomes the true subject of the work.

Placed on a custom-carved rosewood base, it embodies one of the most emblematic objects of Chinese scholarly culture: the scholar's stone.

Since the Tang Dynasty (7th century), these stones have held an essential place in the world of the scholar (wenren)—the learned man, calligrapher, and poet. Valued for their natural beauty, they are neither carved nor polished: their form, the result of erosion and chance, is perceived as a metaphor for the universe.

The scholar contemplates an inner landscape, a miniature world where mountain, cloud, cave, and cosmic breath converge.

Scholar's stones were chosen according to four virtues: minerality , texture, form and sound.

The stone presented here, dense and a deep anthracite gray, perfectly illustrates this tradition: its balanced volumes, subtle veins, and hollowed opening invite meditation and contemplation.

Emerging simultaneously as an object of art and an instrument of thought, the scholar's stone connects humankind to nature without the intermediary of artistic expression.

This piece, from the Republican era, testifies to the enduring nature of an aesthetic ideal born more than a millennium ago, where contemplation and simplicity become an art of living.