Page 369 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

Provenance
Collection of Cheng Shifa (1921-2007).
Private Collection, acquired directly from the above, and thence by descent.

來源
程十髮（1921-2007）收藏
私人收藏，直接得於上述處，此後家族傳承

Catalogue Note
Li Shan is best known as one of an important group of painters who in later times came to be known as the 'Eight Eccentrics of
Yangzhou' due to their expressive and bold style of painting. He was born in Xinghua, Jiangsu Province to a prominent scholar-
official family. From an early age Li studied poetry, calligraphy, and painting from a number of different masters and he achieved
early success, passing the second level examinations at the age of twenty-five. He gained entry into the Imperial Study where he
had the great fortune to be tutored in painting by the well known scholar-official Jiang Tingxi (1669-1732). Jiang was known for his
paintings of birds and flowers, which he produced in two distinct styles—one a more calligraphic, sketchy mode of ink on paper,
and the other a finely drawn, meticulously colored manner, generally on silk. Li Shan presumably learned both techniques from
Jiang Tingxi and he later also studied with Gao Qipei (1660-1734), an artist known for his finger paintings done in a highly
impressionistic style.

After his early success in the court of Kangxi, Li Shan’s life took a turn for the worse following the death of the Kangxi Emperor in
1722. Li’s inherited family fortune was dissipated after twenty years of extravagant living and he moved to Yangzhou where he
became a professional artist and befriended Zheng Xie, Huang Shen, Gao Fenghan, and other artists who wrote and painted for a
living. Li Shan is best known for his works from this period, which tend to be large-scale, powerful but simple compositions on
paper rendered with broad, energetic brushstrokes and copious amounts of ink. This style presumably appealed to the salt
merchants and other wealthy clientele of 18th century Yangzhou, an important commercial center.

In 1738, hoping to restart his official career, Li Shan left Yangzhou and traveled to Tengxian, Shandong Province, where he served
as magistrate. The handscroll Flowers, Fruits, Fish, and Vegetables was painted in Tengxian during the last year of Li’s post there. It
is fitting that on this occasion Li has chosen to work, not in the wild expressive style of his Yangzhou years, but in the more orderly,
carefully restrained and nuanced manner associated with his early mentor Jiang Tingxi, who was a highly successful scholar and
official in the Qing court.

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