Ink and colour on silk

58 x 43.5 cm.22 7/8 x 17 1/8 in.

Noted and signed in chinese；stamped with the artist’s seal on the lower right
Guan Liang
1900-1986
In 1937, Guan Liang held a solo exhibition of oil painting at St. John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong. This was followed by another in Chengdu, Sichuan, in 1942 that took the art community by storm. Struck by his Peking opera figures, Guo Moruo exclaimed over the artist’s genius and promoted his works to the general public with an article on his art. Recognition also came from Mao Dun in the form of an inscription. Thus, starting from 1942, Guan Liang found himself greeted by an increasingly large audience while his art evolved into maturity. In that very same year, the artist resigned from his teaching post at the Chengdu Art and Craft School and embarked on a two-year painting-from-life expedition to the western regions.

During this expedition between 1943 and 1944, Guan often worked in watercolour, perhaps for the convenience of recording the sights on the way in the shortest possible time, and the works were small in size and just cursorily coloured. One exception is the present lot, obviously a tour de force, which is relatively large in size, meticulous in execution, and refined in colouring. At the end of the expedition, Guan held a painting exhibition featuring scenic spots across China, which was to become one of his major wartime shows.

Paintings on silk such as this one are few and far between among Guan’s extant works. In the early spring scene elaborately depicted, peach trees in full blossom stand prominently by the river, overlooking a group of youngsters at play in the water. The idyllic picture is so vivid that viewers can almost smell the scent of peach flowers wafting in the air. While the elegant portrayal is indebted to the lurid light and shade of Impressionism, the modelling and the brushwork are clearly rooted in traditional Chinese painting. Upon his return to China, Guan became inspired by gurus such as Huang Binhong and began a structured study of traditional Chinese theories. With a renewed understanding of traditional aesthetic values such as “bringing out the spirit through the form” or “concentrating on the eyes for transmitting the spirit”, he committed himself to the Chinese ideals of capturing both the form and the spirit and striving for vibrant resonance. These qualities are revealed in the present lot by the strong affection and purity in the scant brushwork and light colours.

Price estimate:
HKD：1,500,000 - 2,000,000
USD：193,500 - 258,100

Auction Result:
HKD: --