Page 74 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings Auction September 11, 2018

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION (LOTS 79-84)
美國私人珍藏

Hu Hui Chun was born in 1911 in Beijing; in later years, he changed his given name to Jen Mou. The eldest son of the
infuential banker Hu Chun, J.M. Hu was raised in an elegant private residence amongst his many stepbrothers and
stepsisters. In keeping with tradition, he was given a rigorous background in the Chinese classics; more unusually, this
was supplemented by a Western-style education, as well. He frst encountered Chinese ceramics during his student
years, when he purchased a nineteenth-century brush-washer for his desk. This initial foray into collecting would
become emblematic of J.M. Hu’s poignant relationship with art: even amidst the upheavals of war and the evolution of
his collection, the modest brush-washer stayed with him until his death in 1995. J.M. Hu’s boyhood studies within the
Chinese literati tradition greatly informed his philosophical approach to life and collecting: humble and erudite, he
consistently affrmed that it was the visceral connection between a collector and his acquisitions that was of essential
importance. True value, in J.M. Hu’s estimation, lay far beyond monetary worth.

J.M. Hu’s collection of Chinese ceramics provided abundant opportunity for personal scholarship and historical
investigation. As early as the 1940s, he longed for a welcoming social environment where like-minded collectors could
share and discuss art and objects. Two decades later, he established the Min Chiu Society in Hong Kong alongside fellow
collectors K.P. Chen and J.S. Lee. A noted cultural philanthropist, J.M. Hu gifted substantial groupings from his collection
to the Shanghai Museum in 1950 and 1989; many of these objects remain on view in the museum’s Zande Lou Gallery.
The collector also arranged to have his family’s set of imperial zitan furniture sent to the National Palace Museum
in Taipei for display, and returned the important Siming version of the Huashan Temple stele rubbing to the Palace
Museum, Beijing.

胡惠春於1911年出生在北京，之後自己改名為仁牧。作為上海著名金融家胡筆江的長子，胡惠春和諸多
同父異母的兄弟姐妹一起在典雅別緻的私家宅院長大。承襲家族傳統，他從小接受嚴格的國學教育，值
得一提的是，他同時也接受西學教育作為輔修。求學期間他為自己購入了一件十九世紀陶瓷筆洗來裝飾
書桌，從此便和中國瓷器結下了不解之緣。初次涉獵這一領域的收藏經歷標誌著胡惠春與藝術收藏漫長
情緣的肇始：即使後來戰亂動盪，抑或是他本人的收藏更新換代，這件古樸的筆洗一直伴他至1995年過
世。胡惠春兒時在國學環境中的學習經歷極大影響了他的人生觀和收藏生涯：謙卑樸實，篤行不倦。終
其一生，他與藏品之間心有靈犀，實為收藏事業之精髓。在他看來，藏品真正的價值遠超其價格。

胡惠春珍藏的中國瓷器為學者研究與歷史提供了充足條件。早在1940年代，他就憧憬著有一個能讓志同
道合的收藏人士探討藝術與收藏的社會環境。二十年後，他與藏家陳光甫、利榮森一起在香港成功設立
了敏求精舍。作為知名慈善家，胡惠春於1950年至1989年間向上海博物館慷慨捐獻了大量的私人收藏。
很多藏品現在仍在上海博物館暫得樓公開展出。同時他也將家族所藏的皇家紫檀家具送至台北故宮博物
院展覽，並將華山寺珍貴石刻拓片歸還給北京故宮博物院。

79
ZHANG DAQIAN (1899-1983) 張大千 雲山飛瀑 設色紙本 立軸 一九八〇年
Landscape 題識：六十九年歲庚申（1980年）二月，寫祝惠春道兄七十華誕。大
Hanging scroll, ink and color on paper 千弟爰雙溪摩耶精舍寄呈。
36 Ω x 16 æ in. (92.7 x 42.5 cm.) 鈐印：張爰之印、大千居士、春長好、雲璈錦瑟爭為壽、摩耶精舍
Inscribed and signed, with fve seals of the artist
Dated the second month, gengshen year (1980) 來源：胡惠春（1911-1995）家族收藏。
Dedicated to J.M. Hu (1911-1995) 註：張大千於胡惠春七十大壽時，贈送此幅畫。

$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE
J.M. Hu (1911-1995) Collection, and thence by descent.
Zhang Daqian presented this painting to J.M. Hu in honor of his seventieth
birthday.

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