Under the Hammer

Chinese Paintings — The Online Sale runs until 23 August and features an eclectic array of works in various media. Our Chinese Paintings specialist, Iris Miao, takes us through a tour of a her favourite works in this sale.

Lot 99
Anonymous Emperors' Portraits

The genre of the emperor’s portrait in literature can be traced back to Tang Dynasty (618-907). The earliest and most celebrated piece, Thirteen Emperors, a horizontal scroll attributed to the great 7^th century artist Yan Liben, has been in the Boston Museum of Art since the 1930s for the world to appreciate. Selected from 3000 B.C. to the 10^th century, this exquisitely painted album depicts 33 of the legendary unrivalled emperors in history and mythology.

The painter, though anonymous, showed exceptional skills in capturing the characteristics of each sovereign. On the opposite page, a brief bio including each emperor’s shortfalls and legacies was beautifully inscribed in regular script. The inscriber Peng Qifeng (1701-1784), a high-rank official who served in both the Yongzheng (r. 1722-1735) and Qianlong (r. 1736-1796) courts, was an established book collector and scholar of his time.

Lot 5
Fan Songfen, Misty Mountains

This elegant blue and green landscape was painted by the gifted female artist Fan Songfen, who was born to a family of known artists. Influenced by her versatile father Fan Haolin (1885-1962), Songfen was trained by some renowned masters as a Kunqu artist at a young age, and later became one of the star performers at the Shanghai Kunqu Society. Meanwhile, her talent in painting and calligraphy was by no means shadowed. Together with her contemporaries Chen Xiaochui, Zhou Lianxia and Wu Qingxia, Fan Songfen was a member of the then very impactful Chinese Women Artists Association. The current lot, dedicated to Huang Guibao, her sister-in-law and wife of Huang Xiufeng (1892-1975), is an excellent example of her fine craft.

Lot 85
Zhao Shao'ang, Landscape of A Misty Gorge

At the age of 16, Zhao Shao’ang started his career as a prodigy of Lingnan School master Gao Qifeng (1889-1933). In the next two decades, his reputation soared and by the time he settled down in Hong Kong in 1948, he had established his status as the leading man of the Lingnan School, superb in almost all subject matters from animals to flowers and birds to landscapes. The sceneries of the Three Gorges have been the subject of countless poems and pictorial representations for thousands of years in China, including many artists who lived in Sichuan during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) for whom the magnificent mountains and rivers of the Gorges became their endless inspirations. In the current lot, with the waterway running through the precipitous cliffs, boats scattering leisurely, and the misty clouds afar, Zhao Shao’ang succeeds in creating a tranquil dreamlike atmosphere.

Lot 28
Zhang Daqian, Sailing on River

The current fan leaf measures 29 x 71cm (11⅜ x 28in) , much larger than the average fan leaves offered on the market. The painting, executed on lavish gold paper, depicts two friends in their white robes chatting with each other by the riverbank. The extravagant application of the green pigments for the mountains and the white for the clouds creates an amazing atmosphere of contented unworldly fairyland dwelling. The fine inscription indicates that this wonderful landscape was painted during the fourth lunar month of the dingchou year (1937) while the artist was living by the Kunming Lake inside the Summer Palace in the northwest suburb of Beijing.

Lot 58
Lin Fengmian, Two Egrets

It is said that Lin Fengmian first noticed the beauty of egrets when he lived by the West Lake in Hangzhou during the 1930s. However, it wasn't until Lin moved to Shanghai in the 1950s that egrets and reeds became recurring features in his works. During his Hong Kong years (1977-1991), the artist produced an abundance of works featuring these subjects, partly as a result of market demand due to the auspicious connotations that egrets carry in Chinese painting. In his compositions, Lin pursues the perfection of lines, producing rapid, consistent and expressive lines that have come to define his works. The present work was reportedly acquired by the previous owner from Chung Kiu Chinese Products Emporium, which served as the artist’s agent when he first moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong in late 1977.

Chinese Paintings — The Online Sale is open for bids until 23 August.

For more from our Chinese Paintings department follow @bonhamschinese on Instagram.