Page 140 - September 20 2021 Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings Art Bonhams NYC

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LIN FENGMIAN (1900-1991)
Jialing River
Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, signed Lin Fengmian, with an
artist’s seal Lin Fengmian.
22 x 24 5/8in (55.9 x 62.5cm)

$50,000 - 70,000
林風眠 嘉陵江上 設色紙本 立軸

Provenance/來源:
Far East Fine Arts, San Francisco, California, 1998
加州舊金山遠東藝術中心，1998年

Published/出版:
Little, Stephen, and J. May Lee Barrett. New Songs on Ancient Tunes:
19th-20th Century Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy from the Richard
Fabian Collection, Honolulu: Honolulu Academy of Arts,
2007, pp. 526-527
Little, Stephen, J. May Lee Barrett,《古調新歌：費立哲神父珍藏十九
及二十世紀中國書畫》，檀香山藝術博物館，夏威夷，
2007年，頁526-527

Exhibited/展覽:
New Songs on Ancient Tunes, Honolulu Art Academy, Honolulu,
Hawaii, August 30-October 28, 2007
《古調新歌：費立哲神父珍藏十九及二十世紀中國書畫》，檀香山藝
術博物館，夏威夷，2007年8月30日至10月28日

Lin Fengmian’s six years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris made an
indelible mark on his painting in the decades that followed. Although
the artist mainly abandoned Western oil painting after he returned
to China in 1926, preferring traditional Chinese brushes and paper.
However, he continued to seek a synthesis of Chinese and Western
aesthetics throughout his prolific career. This river landscape is a
case in point. The scene depicted is likely the Jialing River, located in
Chongqing, where the artist spent the wartime 1940’s.

Dispensing with either the tall horizontal or long vertical of the
traditional Chinese hanging scroll or handscroll, Lin Fengmian takes
a near square format to compose the scene, a nod to the Western
canvas. Within the square, the artist uses a range of brushstrokes to
fill the surface with muted tones. The palette, shape, and horror vacui
are strongly reminiscent of a Western oil painting. Yet Lin Fengmian’s
strong calligraphic brushwork, endowed with rhythmic vitality,
returns the painting to China, and demonstrates the artist’s ability to
synthesize two distinct traditions.

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