Oil on canvas

76 x 106.7 cm. 30 x 42 in.

Signed in Pinyin on bottom right
LITERATURE
Oct 1984, The Recent Paintings of Chen Yifei, Hammer Gallery, New York, Exhibition Poster
1984, CHEN YIFEI, Hammer Gallery, New York, p.1

EXHIBITED
30 Oct - 17 Nov 1984, The Recent Paintings of Chen Yifei, Hammer Gallery, New York

PROVENANCE
Hammer Gallery, New York
25 Nov 2007, Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction, Lot 263
Important Private Collection, Asia

Distant memories of Jiangnan, immortalized on canvas
Revisiting Chen Yifei's Recollections of Jiangnan's Waterside Villages
The beauty of China as depicted in his paintings has moved the entire world.
—Yu Qiuyu, renowned author and one of Chen Yifei's confidants
Chen Yifei belongs to the very first wave of contemporary Chinese artists to rise to international renown. His works depict scenes in East Asia using the fundamental techniques of Western realism. It is almost like appreciating the East's subtle, reserved beauty through the eyes of a Westerner.
Realism: Beautiful Landscapes Captured in Poetic Detail
After graduating from the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Chen Yifei moved to the United States in 1980 to pursue his artistic dreams, and then in 1982, he became one of Hammer Galleries' signed painters. He started an official collaboration with the world-famous Marlborough Gallery in 1996, becoming the Chinese contemporary artist with the highest degree of recognition on the global stage at that time. Chen Yifei has a talent for depicting subject matter such as classic scenes from the Chinese communist revolution, music, Tibetan customs, scenes from Old Shanghai, and scenery in the Jiangnan area. His works provide Westerners with a window through which they can develop insights into daily life in China at different points throughout its history. The works in his Waterside Villages series transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, rendering the gentle beauty of the East accessible to people throughout the world.
Works that Bear Witness to History
The fact that Hammer Gallery has held five exhibitions for Chen Yifei revolving around his Waterside Villages series is indicative of these works' immense popularity. The Waterside Villages series' rise to fame began in 1984, when The New York Times and The Art Newspaper described Chen Yifei's creative style as “romantic realism”. Since then, Chen has led a number of exhibitions in institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the New England Center for Contemporary Art in Connecticut, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. One of the works in this series, Hometown Memory: Double Bridges （completed in 1985）, was chosen by the then-owner of the Hammer Galleries and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, Dr. Armand Hammer, as a gift for the then-leader of China, Deng Xiaoping, during Hammer's trip to China. Not long after, this work was chosen by the United Nations as the background for a first day cover commemorating the release of a series of postage stamps. With all that, one could easily say that this work bore witness to a precious period of history.
Waterside Villages: Chen's Homage to His Rural Roots
Just as Chen Yifei was exploring how to break through obstacles in his maturation as an artist, his good friend in China, Yang Mingyi, sent him photos of the waterside village of Zhouzhuang. Chen was immediately seduced by the scenery in these photos and travelled to Zhouzhuang in 1982 in search of more beautiful landscapes. The work presented for auction, Snow-Topped Roofs, was the product of this expedition. In the painting, Chen uses realist techniques in order depict the resplendent scenery of Jiangnan's waterside villages in vivid detail. Using the language of Western classical art, Chen shares recollections of his homeland, while at the same time determining the focus of his artistic career in a foreign land.
In Snow-Topped Roofs, Chen Yifei uses a palette of grey hues to evoke the small village of Zhouzhuang after a snowfall. Two fishing boats slowly pass under the arched stone bridge in the foreground； the surface of the water is slightly rippled, suggesting the presence of a light breeze. Rather than pursuing beautiful colors or an ingenious composition, the artist instead borrows the language of European classicism to depict a tranquil, poetic scene in a typical Jiangnan waterside village. This European influence is evident in the reflection of the scenery on the water as well as the contrast between light and dark tones on the buildings and the canal.
Dreams of Days Past: an Artist's Return to the Simple Joys of His Rural B ackground
The artist here demonstrates his consummate abilities through the unique composition of the painting as well as his painstaking attention to detail. For example, details such as the man climbing the bridge as well as the pedestrian carrying an umbrella and turning his head make this idyllic scene even more vivid. The bare-branched tree at the center of the bridge evokes the coldness of winter and complements the snow-capped tiles on the typical, traditional roofs of Zhouzhuang as well as the boats along the embankment of the river on the other side of the bridge. Chen Yifei depicts the scenery in a spectrum of gray hues that evoke the tranquility of an old photograph, enticing viewers into a state of deep contemplation.
While it often snows in the northern reaches of China, snowy landscapes are a rare sight in the south. There are therefore not many works by Chen Yifei that depict the scenery of Jiangnan after a snowstorm — no more than ten such landscapes exist among the known works of Chen's Waterside Villages series. After its completion in 1984, this work was printed on the poster of Chen's exhibition at the Hammer Gallery in the same year, further contributing to its already immense value.

Price estimate:
HKD: 4,000,000 - 6,000,000
USD: 509,600 - 764,300

Auction Result:
HKD : --