Oil on canvas

65.5 × 54 cm. 25 3/4 × 21 1/4 in.

Signed in Chinese and date on upper right

LITERATURE
2006, Christie's Hong Kong 20 Years: 20th Century Chinese Art Highlights, Asian Contemporary Art Highlights, Hong Kong, p. 18
2007, The Portrait of Chinese Painting in 20th Century, Sylvie Chen Art Gallery, Taipei, cover page and p. 34-35
PROVENANCE
25 Oct 1998, Christie's Taipei Autumn Auction, Lot 16
Acquired directly by present important private Asian collector from the above

Peerless Elegance, Unique Beauty
1940s Oil Painting with Rare Motif by Pan Yuliang――Lady Brushing Her Hair

“Exploring beauty in creation from extremes, what the past 300 years of literati painting could not do ... the heroine Madame Pan Yuliang now has achieved.”

――Xu Beihong

In 1921, Pan Yuliang (1895-1977) left China to study overseas, the first woman among the many Chinese artists in that period to study art in France. She returned to take up a teaching position in 1928, but went back to France in 1937 to undertake advanced studies and remained there for four decades, until her death in 1977. Through her self-confidence and industrious spirit Pan lived a life that was a testament to the free spirit of Chinese women, experiencing countless “firsts”. For example, she was among the first group of female students to pass the entrance examination for Shanghai Fine Arts School, the first Asian to gain admission to Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, the first female Chinese painter to be nominated at the Italian National Art Exhibition, the first female artist to hold a solo oil painting exhibition in modern China and the first Chinese artist to have a work collected by the Louvre Museum. Throughout her life, Pan won 21 awards and her works were shown at renowned art salon exhibitions and national museums on 47 occasions. British art historian Michael Sullivan praised her as “a top class Chinese Western style painter” and Xu Beihong went as far as to call her a “national heroine.” Pan Yuliang was a true female hero who left the spirit of her painting for the world, a woman of exceptional ability who continues to influence the art world even today.

Golden Age – the Only ‘Lady Brushing Her Hair' Oil Painting

In December 1941, Pan Zanhua, a customs official in Wuhu, Anhui, wrote to his wife Pan Yuliang: “Work hard, your future is bright, real, worthy and honourable.” In 1937, the female artist had left her hometown and arrived in Paris where she began her tireless pursuit of art. It was in the 1940s that Pan reached the first creative peak in her artistic career, tirelessly painting self portraits and female nudes that reflected her self-determination. In 1945, Pan received the French National Gold Image Award and in the same year the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held a major exhibition titled “International Exhibition of Modern Art” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, at which Pan's work was displayed. At the same time, domestic and foreign media began to report on her art, with the US China Tribune dubbing her a member of the “artistic elite” and an “admirable artist,” while a reporter from the Shanghai Shun Pao travelled to France to interview Pan in her Paris studio. She also welcomed an endless stream of visitors and other artists, who took pictures in front of the horizontal board inscribed with the name “Pan Yuliang” hung from the door to her apartment as a memento. As such, it is not difficult to imagine how well known Pan was among the Chinese community in Paris at that time. In 1948, the Republic of China embassy in Paris held an exhibition of works by four Chinese artists living in France - Pan Yuliang, Sanyu, Zao Wou-Ki and Xiao Lingzhuo, that was well received by art critics. Pan demonstrated that she was every bit as talented and capable as her male colleagues and in so doing showcased the aesthetics and grace of Asian women.

The work Lady Brushing Her Hair is an excellent example of Pan Yuliang's oil painting work from the 1940s. It was completed in 1948, a time when her reputation was on the rise and she was being widely praised. It is noticeable that in this work Pan dressed the semi nude Asian female figure in a red robe, as a symbol of her identity as a Chinese female painter far from home, but also to extol feminine beauty. Indeed her exceptional female nudes were highly sought after artistic classics.

If we review Pan's paintings throughout her artistic career, Lady Brushing Her Hair is the only one among 400 existing oil painting works with its motif of a woman brushing her hair, making it a rarity. However, the artist clearly had a soft spot for this theme as she also used it in seven collected coloured ink on paper works produced in the 1950s and 1960s, six of which are held by Anhui Provincial Museum, while the other is in the National Art Museum of China collection. As the only work with this motif that has come onto the market and the only oil painting, Lady Brushing Her Hair is a high quality classic and a worthy addition to any collection.

Female Nudes: Moving and Glorious, Imbued with Self Confidence and Self Presence

Female nude oil paintings feature prominently throughout the creative career of Pan Yuliang. In 1920, she gained admission to Shanghai Fine Arts School, where school Principal Liu Haisu was a key proponent of reform, including equality in educational opportunities for men and women. He also invited naked female models to sit for classes on how to paint nudes, in 1917 held a public student nude painting exhibition and in 1920 hired a Russian woman as a full-time model. Although officials strongly opposed Liu's moves, his outlook planted a seed in the mind of Pan Yuliang. Thereafter, her observations of female nudes were used to understand herself and engage in self reflection, which she then applied to the nudes she painted. In this way, Pan gave voice to natural female beauty, her free yearning and expressiveness marking a break with tradition. Against this backdrop, the artist's female nudes became symbols imbued with implied meaning and her ultimate pursuit.

In 1922, Pan was part of the first group of publicly-funded Chinese students to arrive in France and went on to study at École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris and Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome. In 1927, at the age of 32, she painted her first “female nude” and received a gold medal at the Italian National Art Exhibition. At that time, the Chinese art world still considered nudes to be taboo, so Pan Yuliang's outstanding expression in the genre placed her firmly at the forefront of Chinese and Western modern art.

Although there were a large number of female nude sketches in the 1930s, it was not until the late 1930s that Pan painted female nude oil painting and only 90 such works are known to exist. Initially, she referenced the female nudes produced by painting masters from the Impressionist and Fauvist schools and her works often focused on Western women. However, in the late 1940s as Pan searched for a reflection of herself in the ancients, she produced many depictions of Chinese women, while also adding Eastern features that imbued the female nudes in the paintings with a unique elegance. Of the 48 Eastern female nude and semi-nude oil paintings by Pan, the use of Chinese traditional clothing, curtains, towels or hair in a bun became signifiers as to the status of the figures depicted and highlights of the pieces. Lady Brushing Her Hair was completed in 1948 and is an excellent example of this genre. The black haired woman in the painting wears an embroidered red robe that highlights the peerless elegance of Eastern women, while the half-covered nude also speaks to the real beauty of the female form, exuding a sense of self-confidence and self-presence. The woman is physically stocky and supple, not the aesthetically slim, gentle and graceful female archetype usually portrayed, moreover this depiction of a larger woman imbued with a sense of power became a common reference point in the paintings of Pan Yuliang. In this work, the artist used straightforward “Yuliang iron wire” lines to create the transfer and interchange of the female body, using big brush strokes to showcase the blooming beauty inherent in the woman's self-confidence marked by softness and fortitude, conveying an instantly unforgettable unique demeanour of calm steadfastness.

The Self-Contentment and Natural Beauty of Lady Brushing Her Hair

In this work, Pan Yuliang employed tightly interwoven Chinese ink painting outline drawing to depict a woman who has just bathed. The slightly elongated body and magnified physical proportions ensure the focus is firmly on the figure's posture. However, Pan did not rigorously adhere to the body construct or formal depiction of women at that time, preferring instead to highlight the stable triangular composition, with the woman presented as relaxed and unhurried, as Pan showcased the romantic charm of the scene. The figure sits with her legs under her body one arm elevated the other lower down as she brushes her long hair, creating a richly dynamic scene. Moreover, through the tension created by the twists and turns of the lines the female body is imbued with a powerful existentialist sense. The solid black lines create a clear and pronounced image, while the woman's black hair is a combination of sonorous rough brushstrokes and compact understated fine detail, highlighting its supple texture. The circular patterns on the robe, the arched lines of the sleeve openings and the loose external lines of the robe, are all contrasted against the mellowness and plumpness of the female form to draw attention to its soft and gentle side. As the woman's hair cascades downwards, the lapel of the robe introduces a lengthwise visual feel as she brushes her hair with her right hand, an intriguing combination of hard and soft that speaks to a deeper inner world.

The work takes the act of a woman brushing her hair as a way of accessing female emotions. It is also replete with ancient poetry and an important scene from every day life that serves as a synonym for a single woman. For example, Ballad of Mulan speaks of the main character “brushing her hair in the window,” and in Wuling Spring written by renowned Song Dynasty female poet Li Qingzhao (1084-1155) she depicted a woman “getting up late and being too tired to brush her hair.” Moreover, in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420) Gu Kaizhi's Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies includes a scene of a woman brushing her hair, highlighting the fact that as part of the advocacy of female virtue fine ladies were expected to wear their hair up. However, in the works of Pan Yuliang, the poetic beauty of “a woman brushing her hair” focuses much more on lyrical expression detailing the real world life of women rather than a formal presentation. In this painting, the woman's loosely hanging un-brushed jet black hair together with her relaxed phoenix eyes are a testament to the relaxed emotional state of the protagonist, as she rigorously brushes her hair without any pretensions, elegant and keen, freed from the constraints placed on women by traditional etiquette. In addition, the liberation of the hair and exposure of the body are also allusions to the human spirit breaking free and free thinking. As aesthete Chiang Hsun has said: “The works of Pan Yuliang in which the female body is the subject are all seemingly allusions to ‘self portraiture'.” In other words, the figures depicted are essentially self-referential. Living in the 1920s, at a time when female consciousness was awakening, Pan used her works as a declaration of independence, fearlessly revealing her true self and resolutely depicting her own independent carefree character.

Blooming Multiflora Rose – Red Attire Telling a Tale

“In the eyes of a painter, colour is an artistic sensation. When observing a subject one cannot remain with her original colour, there has to be crafting, focus on expression, imbued with rich imagination, so it has the power to move others.”

―― Pan Yuliang

Pan was also adept at using colour to establish powerful expressions and highlight the bearing and emotions of the figure depicted. For example, the artist dressed many of her female nudes in red or used red decorations as her signature use of colour expression, in what can perhaps best be characterized as an Eastern expressive feature. In Lady Brushing Her Hair, Pan employed red as a special expressive colour that speaks to the sentiment and life energy of the individual. Indeed, the figure in the painting is covered by a loose fitting fire-red robe, like a bright red rose in full bloom imbued with the colour of life.

The style of red clothing in the painting is taken from a fashion popular in the Song and Han dynasties, the edges of the garment decorated with a simple circular pattern. For Pan Yuliang, who from a young age loved to embroider and adored traditional floral patterns, ancient costumes, folk motifs and the auspicious colour red encapsulated Eastern beauty, while also representing her Asian identity. In Lady Brushing Her Hair, Pan boldly combined and contrasted red and green, creating a clear contrast between the two colours through an eye-catching colour language that is rich in classical beauty and imbued with a sprightly expressive feel. The Pointillist approach makes use of the light colour technique of the Impressionist School, with bright pure colours embodying the figure depicted and rich layering utilized to highlight her radiant and enchanting character. In this way, the symbolic meaning of colour is used to reveal the self-confidence and fearless determination of Eastern women.

Fusing East and West, a Distinctive Painting Spirit Imbued with True Feeling

This painting is also an excellent example of how Pan Yuliang was able to adapt her attainments in ink painting aesthetics to the genre of Western oil painting. As such, she adds diluted red pigment to the beige hues of the woman's cheeks, neck, knees, face and feet, in a way that is akin to the rendering effect of ink painting. In this way, the red of the clothes gradually transfers to her skin, contrasting its sense of brightness with the natural light. Together with the overlapping oil painting brush strokes, Pan constructed a spatial layering that gives the floor and background a depth of field, so the woman is shrouded in warm light and fully revealed. It is within these contrasting colours that Pan Yuliang achieves her artistic ideal – the fusion of East and West.

Price estimate:
HKD: 6,000,000 - 8,000,000
USD: 764,300 - 1,019,100

Auction Result:
HKD: --