“Puyi helped draw this sketch.”
—Georgy Permyakov

This watercolour painting of a scholar at his desk is particularly valuable as it provides further insight into Puyi’s involvement in its creation. Permyakov’s comments reads: “Puyi helped draw this sketch.” The figure frowning in concentration while reading a classical Chinese text in particular, was most likely from Puyi’s hand, as it is in a radically different style to the faces painted by Runqi.

 

ArtDiscovery Stylistic analysis and comparisons of the figures in the notebook and watercolours

 

As mentioned earlier, Runqi was the author of the watercolour paintings whereas the Chinese annotations were by Puyi. Art Discovery further demonstrated that Puyi was likely the author of certain figures in the notebook and the watercolour of a scholar behind a desk by making comparisons to his extant ink drawings.

 

The first case proposes that Puyi drew the figures illustrating how to handle fireworks in the notebook, as well as related drawings in the surrounding pages. This determination rests on a comparison to an undated sketch attributed to Puyi expressing his desire for a bloody end to the warlord Sun Dianying (1889-1948). Similarities to the woman igniting a firework include almond-shaped outlines delineating the eye, with a dot in the inner corner indicating the pupil and intense directionality of the gaze of the figure. The bodies composed of lumpish torsos, fingers of equal width and arms appear preternaturally short or long to suit the desired action all lead to a likely assumption that the woman with the firework was drawn by Puyi.

 

The second case is that of the watercolour painting of a scholar at his desk which provided further insight on Puyi’s involvement in this composition. A Russian paratext, ‘Puyi helped draw this sketch’, tantalizingly suggests that Puyi might have drawn the figure frowning in concentration to read a classical Chinese text. The complexion and intensity of this figure differs radically from the construction of faces in other pictures created by Runqi.