HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s Hong Kong Fine Chinese Paintings Autumn Sale 2014 will be held on 7 October (Tuesday) at Hall 3, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. More than 360 lots including salient works from masters including Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Fu Baoshi and Li Keran will be offered, with a total estimate reaching HK$200 million / US$25.6 million. Many of the works featured in this sale are offered for the first time at auction, including early 20th-century calligraphy works as well as an assemblage of folding fans, handscrolls and albums from the private collection “Exquisite & Fine — An Important Collection of Paintings”. Other highlights—including several unseen in public for over a decade since their previous sales at Sotheby’s—represent a rare opportunity for acquisition.

C.K. Cheung, Head of Chinese Paintings Department, Sotheby’s, said: “Continuing to leverage our unrivalled global network, we are delighted this season to have assembled some of the most outstanding works from important private collections locally and overseas, led by salient works from distinguished masters, some of them fresh to the auction market. They will be offered on 7 October in one of the largest Chinese painting auctions at Sotheby’s estimated at HK$200 million in total, the highest for recent seasons. As the first international auction house to offer Chinese Paintings at auction in Asia, Sotheby’s has established unequalled experience and an extensive network in the region, a fact that is reflected in the consignment of works originally purchased at Sotheby’s, which is a solid proof of the unfailing trust and long-standing support of our clients.

Zhang Daqian’s La Beauté Antique is undoubtedly the star lot of the sale. Completed at the pinnacle of the artist’s gongbi brushwork style period, this painting is a beautiful manifestation of techniques influenced by mural art in Dunhuang, to which Zhang famously visited in early 1940s. The significance of the work is further attested by its distinguished exhibition history, which includes multiple important solo shows of the artist, among them Tchang Ta Ts’ien at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1956.

Other highlights of the sale include Qi Baishi’s Rising Sun and Fu Baoshi’s Lofty Terrace of Mount Huang, the latter being formerly in the collection of a French diplomat in China.”

SALE HIGHLIGHTS
Featured in the 1956 Exhibition Tchang Ta Ts’ien at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Zhang Daqian (1899 – 1983) La Beauté Antique 1953 Ink and colour on paper, framed 135.2 x 57.5 cm Estimate upon request
Inspired by his visit to the grave of legendary Tang-dynasty heroine Hong Fu Nu, a character in Du Guangtin’s classic novel Legend of the Curly-Bearded Man, in Li Ling City in 1933, Zhang Daqian composed a number of poems after the trip. It was however not until 1944 that the character Hong Fu Nu was first seen in his paintings.

Completed in 1953 in Argentina, at the prime of the artist’s mastery of fine line figurative (gongbi) brushwork style, La Beauté Antique is the second known rendition of this subject. The influence of the Dunhuang mural art which Zhang famously studied during his travels is evident in the delicate portrayal of the subject—in particular her highly elaborate costume and the use of bright and vibrant colours often seen on ancient Chinese murals. The elegant style of his Ming-dynasty predecessors features prominently in the work and is further embellished by the nuanced beauty of artist’s own signature expressions.

During this period, the artist’s use of colour matured and was no longer restrained by the Tang-dynasty style. Applied on xuan paper, ink and colour are given fuller expression in the present work than in a preceding 1944 version on a different medium. Here, the artist chose lighter yet equally vibrant colours to portray a more elegant version of the heroine, employing vivid and clear lines to provide better contrast hence emphasising the character’s personality and femininity.

The significance of La Beauté Antique is further illustrated by its distinguished exhibition history. In 1956, the painting was handpicked by Zhang Daqian to be displayed at the Tchang Ta Tsien exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris—the debut solo exhibition of the artist at a world-class art institution in the West featuring 61 important paintings, including works loaned from Zhang’s close friends Gao Lingmei and Dr Guo Zijie, as well as the Musée Cernuschi.

Qi Baishi (1864 – 1957) Rising Sun 1919 Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll 130 x 52.3 cm Est. HK$8 – 12 million / US$1.03 – 1.54 million
Rising Sun plays on Qi Baishi’s favourite landscape theme, but with a twist. The original landscape motif—represented by basic elements such as images of a red sun, a sailing boat, remote mountains, coloured clouds and waves— was developed after one of the artist’s trips. In Rising Sun, the focus lies in the scarlet clouds and waves of a lake skillfully etched by brush tip. An emerging sun casts shimmering light on the water, obscuring the emerald hues of faraway mountains.

Dedicated to a government official, the painting, in particular the portrayal of the rising sun, bears metaphorical reference to a promising career of the recipient.

Previously in the Collection of a French Diplomat in China
Fu Baoshi (1904 – 1965) Lofty Terrace of Mount Huang 1945 Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll 98.3 x 50.3 cm Est. HK$ 6 – 8 million / US$769,000 – 1.03 million
Executed at the height of Fu Baoshi’s artistic creativity, Lofty Terrace of Mount Huang showcases the artist’s signature painting technique, put to impressive use here recreating China’s legendary Yellow Mountain. The craggy, irregularly-shaped giant rocks, overlaid by dense, sprawling foliage, predominate the painting and leave little space only in the top corner. The painting was inspired by poetry, but it remains faithful to nature in its accurate portrayal of the terrain.

Yu Fei’an (1889 – 1959) Peonies and Insects 1948 Ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll 84 x 49.3 cm Est. HK$800,000 – 1.2 million / US$103,000 – 154,000
Yu Fei’an had an unbridled passion for painting peonies. He lovingly depicted them with leaves as green and dense as those in summer and branches as sturdy as those in autumn, to accentuate the beauty of the flowers at their height of glory in spring. In Peonies and Insects, the blooming flowers are painted in fresh pastels, their swaying appeal drawing the bees. As a portrait of peonies, it stands heads and shoulders above similarly-themed works in gongbi brushwork style from the 20th century.

Depictions of insects—including the ink-black butterfly, dragonfly, bees and ants—are rarely seen in Yu’s other works, but are here accomplished with animation and vitality. Such realism and attention to detail attest to the artist’s powers of observation and uncanny ability to bring the creatures to life on paper.

Pu Ru (1896 – 1963) Kneeling by the River Circa 1940s Ink and colour on silk, hanging scroll 21 x 35.6 cm Est. HK$120,000 – 180,000 / US$15,000 – 23,000
Kneeling by the River illustrates Pu Ru’s whimsical play on words and the subject matter of his work. As suggested by its title, the painting portrays a man kneeling by a river, and the title - Kneeling By the River (pronounced as ‘He Dunren’ in Chinese) carries the same pronunciation of the name of the artist’s student. In the 1930s, this student followed his father, He Zhendai, a poet, to Beijing to pursue his studies and learn landscape painting under Pu Ru. Later, he became a resident artist at Fuzhou Art Academy and an executive with the Fujian Chapter of China Artists Association. Inspired by none other than a novice under his charge, the artist shows his great sense of humour in this comical work.