Ink and color on paper

63 × 59 cm. 24 3/4 x 23 1/4 in.

Inscribed and signed in Chinese with one artist’s seal on upper left
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly by an important Asian collector from the artist

Note: This work is attached with a label of Taipei Caves Gallery on the reverse

A Falling Leaf Heralds Autumn,
as I Rule Over the Boundless Land
Jiu Youfu was born in Hebei in 1942. In 1960, he was admitted to the Chinese Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Li Keran. Inheriting the tradition of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, Jia painted with thick brushes on the theme of grand mountains and rivers, among which the Taihang Mountain series bears profound poetic characteristics.
Archaize landscape paintings on a small scale of the artist are rarely seen, out of which Boundless Mountains in Autumn, the presented work in the auction, is a significant attempt of Jia to break through his artistic pattern. The painting is entitled with great momentum in the same way as the traditional landscape paintings and scrolls. However, Jia breaks the tradition by not adopting the panoramic composition, but partially depicting the mountain range through a detailed horizontal view, thus bringing out the universality of all magnificent mountains. The small scale contains imposing grandeur, like a falling leaf heralding the autumn.
Jia is remarkable for his use of poured ink clouds, which is a challenge as well as a renovation of landscape painting technique. In this work, he firstly spreads out a large area of mountain stones with peppered strokes, generating a thick and layered black color field and an imposing yet atmospheric manner. Then, a parallel white base is applied, which blurs the boundary and presents a mist-shrouded scenery. The small figures of herdsmen and cows sketched in front of the mountain set off the grand mountain whose edges are beyond vision. In the picture, the vast expanses of deep and serene ink have made the mountain exceed the boundary of “existence,” reaching the realm of “infinite and boundless” and giving the image a decorous quality, majestic momentum, and inexplicable mystery. The borders between the heaven, the mountain, the people, and the land are vanishing, leading to a unified entity of human and universe.

Price estimate:
HKD: 70,000 - 150,000
USD: 9,000 - 19,200

Auction Result:
HKD: 200,600