Ink and colour on paper

68 × 68 cm. 26 3/4 x 26 3/4 in.

Signed in Chinese with one artist’s seal on bottom left

LITERATURE
1999, Lin Fengmian – Leader of Chinese Modernism Art, Canada Asia Pacific International Art Consultants Ltd, Taipei, p.185
PROVENANCE
Important Private Collection, Asia

Indescribable beauty, Poetic and Dreamlike
The Market Debut of Classic Works by Lin Fengmian from the 1950s to 60s
Traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, dating as far back as 5,000 years, were profoundly impacted by cultural exchanges between the East and West during the early part of the 20th century. This led to the question: What new face should be shown to the world? After the May Fourth Movement, many Chinese artists tried to explore this issue, Lin Fengmian one of them. With ink and paint, he expressed truth and beauty, showed his emotions and imagination through ethereal landscapes, and conveyed a sense of order with rational composition. His works encompass language, culture, and ethnicity and interpret new and revolutionary aesthetic concepts. This is why his works are regarded as the watershed between Chinese modern art and traditional painting and calligraphy.
Early Instances of “East-meets-West”
During the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s, Lin had no choice but to destroy almost all his paintings. In his later years, however, he attempted to recreate the images he managed to preserve in his memory. Lying Lady (Lot692) and Fish Bowl and Vased Flower in front of the Window (Lot690), both featured in this spring auction, are among the few of his early paintings that survived. These precious works are the fruitful results of Lin’s artistic practice in the 1950s and 60s, a time when he focused on the concept of “East-meets-West”. The third piece, Lady in Blue (Lot691), provided by an acclaimed collector of Chinese traditional paintings, is one of Lin’s classic female portraits and fully reflects his aesthetic concept.
A Personal Artistic Achievement and a Representative of its Era
Lying Lady, a Precious and Rare Female Portrait from the 1950s
Female portraits are the subject Lin was known for and in which he achieved true excellence. These works show his personal understanding, pursuit, and expression of beauty. During a contemporary Chinese art exhibition held at the Parisian Musée Cernuschi in 1946, one novel female portrait of his that had combined the modern beauty of Western women and the classical beauty of Oriental women won the admiration of the masses. This painting immortalized his name in Paris and set the basic style for his future works.
Lying Lady, completed in 1947, is Lin’s most representative piece. In terms of the composition, the picture is divided into three areas: still life, protagonist, and background. Gray mid-tones added among the blacks and whites reflect the transition between light and dark, creating a sense of depth. The artist used gouache and smooth ink lines to depict the tea set at the bottom left part of the picture as well as the screen in the background and the fruit trees printed on it. The empty spaces between the contours and gouache echo each other in the picture. The screen’s frame is outlined by solid black lines, which divide the background into two parts. This practice of vertical bisecting became a typical feature of Lin’s later female portraits.
The woman in the painting is lying in the center of the picture, her head on the left and legs on the right, forming a diagonal composition, characteristic of Lin’s early female portraits. Her contours are smooth, and the gouache highlights her plump, curvaceous body and the light texture of the clothes. The folds of the fabric, the backrest of the bed, and the geometric lines in the background bring a visual balance of the dynamic and the static, allowing the audience to get a glimpse of the beauty of tranquil life.
Free, Honest, and Open-minded
Before the 1950s, Lin depicted actual people in his works. Depending on the model, his protagonists would vary in facial expression, demeanor, clothing, and posture. This, however, is not the case with the classic female portraits he created after this period. Lying Lady was painted before the 1950s, yet it is very different from standard, Chinese classical depictions of women, as the protagonist’s appearance, body language, and disposition are very realistic. She looks forward, and the artist smudged ink above her eyes to create eyelashes, giving her a modern temperament and warmth. Her body has a pronounced, contemporary style and slightly exaggerated features, reminiscent of Fauvist portraits by Matisse. The lines used to depict the folds of her clothes are smooth, lively, and eye-catching. While rendering the woman’s skin and clothes, Lin superimposed ink with blue and green gouache on rice paper, differentiating the degree of brightness and creating a sense of volume. Pale green gouache enveloping the protagonist’s body gives the picture a fresh and elegant air.
Delicate and Graceful
Lady in Blue, the Classic Aesthetic of Lin Fengmian’s Female Portraits
Unlike Lying Lady, Lady in Blue represents the mature stage of Lin Fengmian’s creation of female portraits. Here, he used light, quick lines to depict a woman sitting in a room. Vertical lines divide the background into three areas, the left one the widest and the right one the narrowest. The protagonist forms a triangular structure, a ceramic vase next to her. The simple composition gives off a sense of depth as well as visual balance. It is obvious that the artist was extremely confident during the artistic process, and this has imbued the work with aristocratic elegance.
The sitting woman occupies the central part of the painting. She is gently stroking a flower created using white gouache. Her slender fingers surround the bright and lovely blossom, their soft and pure beauty reminiscent of an ancient Chinese truth: people may encounter many good things, but seizing just one is enough to fuel a lifetime. The women in Lin’s portraits tend to wear white or other bright colors, but here, the artist depicted a light blue veil covering dark blue robes and echoing the decorations of the woman’s hair. At the same time, the gradual transition of cool tones allows the protagonist to resemble an elegant lotus flower. In the background, the pale yellow curtains are penetrated by bright spring sunshine, thus balancing the cold shades of her clothes. Moreover, the contrast created by the reddish brown furniture behind her makes her appear even more independent. The white vase on the right seems to suggest that the girl’s beauty is as easy to fade as the flower’s, and this adds a touch of poetic melancholy to the work.
Simple Lines Showing a Graceful and Slender Body
In terms of expression techniques, the elegant background of Lady in Blue contrasts with the clear face and serene eyes of the protagonist generating an impression of change and a sense of depth. Lin used slender and smooth (yet powerful) strokes to outline the woman’s delicate face, somehow conjoining the aesthetics of the East and the lines of the West to demonstrate his pursuit of the expressive force of shapes and lines. The protagonist’s demeanor and clothing call to mind the characters depicted in the painting Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies, which dates back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, as it highlights the unique beauty of the women of the Orient and reveals a strong spirit pouring out of the artist.
Combining the Strong Points of Eastern and Western Composition Techniques
Fish Bowl and Vased Flower in front of the Window, a classic still life from the 1960s
According to Chinese tradition, the techniques and rules of painting and of calligraphy are essentially the same. Lin realized very early on that although this approach can create rich changes on drawing paper, too many changes will weaken the visual impact. In order to break through the limitations of conventional methods, he introduced various Western composition techniques into traditional ink painting. Deeply influenced by Cézanne, he explored geometry in his pictures, retaining the flatness typical of Eastern art. As a result, his works are visually striking and are not limited by the rules of light and shading, perspective, anatomy, etc., maximizing the advantages of planar composition.
Fish Bowl and Vased Flower in front of the Window is an outstanding work in which Lin frees himself of the shackles of tradition and integrates Eastern and Western techniques. Two main items, a fish bowl and a vase, occupy two-thirds of the picture. The background is divided into three vertical parts, which is typical in paintings by Lin. The different patterns of the background as well as the various shading tones are independent of each other, yet mutually balanced. Flowers in the vase placed before the rectangular window form a semi-circle; the round table is covered with a square tablecloth; and there is a white rectangular space in the spherical fish bowl. These circular and angular shapes complement each other, creating an organized geometric space that gives the picture a sense of consistency and a strong visual effect.
Gouache and ink Intertwined
In terms of color, Lin boldly applied several layers of gouache on rice paper and then used dry and wet brushes to create changes in hue. The layers of blue and purple superimposed upon each other next to the windows are constantly thickening, encircling the pink bouquet until they reach complete coverage. The flowers are of a light, vibrant pink shade, and one can almost smell their delicate aroma. The yellowish-green scenery visible through the window provides a glimpse of the surroundings. The color gets thicker and deeper at the bottom of the window, extending all the way to the foot of the wall, giving the impression of spring sunshine overflowing the entire house. The white space in the fish bowl on the table is a central source of light in an otherwise dark picture, forming a strong visual tension that attracts the viewer’s attention. Two splotches of orange form the goldfish swimming in the bowl, the fine and abstract ink lines their eyes, brilliant and vivid, fully embodying Qi Baishi’s concept that the “idea is present before the first stroke of the brush; when the last stroke is placed, the idea shines through.”

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,500,000 - 2,500,000
USD: 192,300 - 320,500

Auction Result:
HKD: 1,770,000