1945
1945 FU BAOSHI
1
The Song of the Pipa Player
2017 SOLD for HK$ 205M by Christie's
Bai Juyi's long poem is a masterpiece of realistic song, admired for its intense emotion, recited and illustrated by the Chinese since it was composed 1200 years ago under the Tang Dynasty. A fallen politician drifts away in a chilly autumn night until he hears the lute and the wonderful song of an aging woman who has lost her appeal and has been fired from the court.
This poem inspires Fu Baoshi, certainly from his years of training in Japan. In his innovative style that combines tradition and modernism, Fu considers that the artist must be completely imbued with the literary model to recreate the atmosphere.
In 1944 and 1945 in trials of increasing complication, Fu composed his visual interpretation of the poem of Bai, bringing all the significant elements : the man and the woman, the colors of autumn in the moonlight. At the same time he works on the expression of Qu Yuan's political poems which immerse him with the symbolic role of ghosts in Taoism.
On November 28 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 8801 a 113 x 66 cm hanging scroll made in 1945 from the Song of the Pipa Player. This artwork had been sold in the same auction room on November 30, 2010 for HK $ 70M including premium.
The composition is one of the most complex made by Fu on this theme. It shows at the ends of the diagonal two well separated groups of three people each. The foreground group consists of servants with a saddled horse. The main group consisting of the politician-poet, a friend and the musician woman appears through the big tree, reminding the location in the sky of the gods of Taoism.
Fu expresses his own emotional encounter with Bai's poem. The figures are finely drawn in the tradition of Japanese figuration, enabling to display the sadness in the face of the woman and the tears in the eyes of the men.
This poem inspires Fu Baoshi, certainly from his years of training in Japan. In his innovative style that combines tradition and modernism, Fu considers that the artist must be completely imbued with the literary model to recreate the atmosphere.
In 1944 and 1945 in trials of increasing complication, Fu composed his visual interpretation of the poem of Bai, bringing all the significant elements : the man and the woman, the colors of autumn in the moonlight. At the same time he works on the expression of Qu Yuan's political poems which immerse him with the symbolic role of ghosts in Taoism.
On November 28 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 8801 a 113 x 66 cm hanging scroll made in 1945 from the Song of the Pipa Player. This artwork had been sold in the same auction room on November 30, 2010 for HK $ 70M including premium.
The composition is one of the most complex made by Fu on this theme. It shows at the ends of the diagonal two well separated groups of three people each. The foreground group consists of servants with a saddled horse. The main group consisting of the politician-poet, a friend and the musician woman appears through the big tree, reminding the location in the sky of the gods of Taoism.
Fu expresses his own emotional encounter with Bai's poem. The figures are finely drawn in the tradition of Japanese figuration, enabling to display the sadness in the face of the woman and the tears in the eyes of the men.
2
Lady under the Willow Tree
2021 SOLD for RMB 98M by Poly
Fu Baoshi executed from 1940 the portraits of noble antique women as a symbol of purity and a counter-reaction to on-going war and chaos. He imitated the charming ladies of the Tang dynasty with heavy makeup and slender eyebrows. Their charming and graceful images are filled with a mute melancholy.
Fu and his wife Lui Shihui were in deep love. In 1945 for her 35th birthday, he painted the figure of a tall young lady in a light pink dress and very long skirt, standing in an aerial attitude in the shade of a willow. She has a neat hair and a delicate face turned to the right. The work includes a detailed inscription about the hard life in Chongqing in the previous six years.
This hanging scroll in ink on paper 74 x 42 cm was sold for RMB 98M by Poly on December 3, 2021, lot 3555. It is illustrated in the article shared by LaiTimes.
Fu and his wife Lui Shihui were in deep love. In 1945 for her 35th birthday, he painted the figure of a tall young lady in a light pink dress and very long skirt, standing in an aerial attitude in the shade of a willow. She has a neat hair and a delicate face turned to the right. The work includes a detailed inscription about the hard life in Chongqing in the previous six years.
This hanging scroll in ink on paper 74 x 42 cm was sold for RMB 98M by Poly on December 3, 2021, lot 3555. It is illustrated in the article shared by LaiTimes.
3
Trekking in Moonlight
2017 SOLD for HK $ 93M by Sotheby's
The Chinese pictorial art has a unique feature: throughout 2000 years, it has evolved without ever being outfashioned, so that modern artists have again found their inspiration in the most ancient of their predecessors.
Fu Baoshi was a connoisseur of ancient Chinese painting and poetry. The vertical format of his landscapes, deriving from the scroll, first disturbs and then amazes the Western observer accustomed to be presented with wide horizontal perspectives.
He is also traditional in his subjects. The calm and beauty of the hills excite him. He looks for such a spirit in the ancient poems that he calligraphies in his artworks, in accordance with tradition.
But Fu Baoshi developed also an innovative technique, which fits perfectly in the history of international modern art. The general atmosphere is created by subtle ink washes gently mixed, supplemented by a myriad of details. This mixing of realism and impressionism is very successful.
A large format ink painting 208 x 60 cm was sold for RMB 92M by Poly on 2 to 7 June 2012. It is showing a landscape of mountains, inspired by a Tang dynasty poem by Dufu. It was made in 1944, at a time when Fu reached his highest artistic maturity.
This artwork was carried out by Fu in Jingangpo. To better experience the beauty of Sichuan mountains, he lived and worked in a tiny hut. The vertical format enhances the mystical character of the landscape. The characters walk in the lower end of the scenery, but the immensity of the peaks has a soothing and welcoming effect.
In the same style as the example above, Trekking Over Mountains in Moonlight, hanging scroll in ink and color on paper 177 x 57 cm painted in 1945, was sold for HK $ 93M by Sotheby's on October 2, 2017, lot 1291.
Fu Baoshi was a connoisseur of ancient Chinese painting and poetry. The vertical format of his landscapes, deriving from the scroll, first disturbs and then amazes the Western observer accustomed to be presented with wide horizontal perspectives.
He is also traditional in his subjects. The calm and beauty of the hills excite him. He looks for such a spirit in the ancient poems that he calligraphies in his artworks, in accordance with tradition.
But Fu Baoshi developed also an innovative technique, which fits perfectly in the history of international modern art. The general atmosphere is created by subtle ink washes gently mixed, supplemented by a myriad of details. This mixing of realism and impressionism is very successful.
A large format ink painting 208 x 60 cm was sold for RMB 92M by Poly on 2 to 7 June 2012. It is showing a landscape of mountains, inspired by a Tang dynasty poem by Dufu. It was made in 1944, at a time when Fu reached his highest artistic maturity.
This artwork was carried out by Fu in Jingangpo. To better experience the beauty of Sichuan mountains, he lived and worked in a tiny hut. The vertical format enhances the mystical character of the landscape. The characters walk in the lower end of the scenery, but the immensity of the peaks has a soothing and welcoming effect.
In the same style as the example above, Trekking Over Mountains in Moonlight, hanging scroll in ink and color on paper 177 x 57 cm painted in 1945, was sold for HK $ 93M by Sotheby's on October 2, 2017, lot 1291.
1945 MIRO
1
February 1, 1945 Femme rêvant de l'évasion
2013 SOLD for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's
The war in Europe and the political situation in Spain deeply disturbed Joan Miro. Escaping in the contemplation of the stars, he had made his 1940 Constellations series and had hidden them. He then devotes his creativity to the entanglement of three themes : woman, star, bird.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. At that time it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro accompanies this hope by a chronicle of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion (woman dreaming of escape), the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 26.
The main figure is human, but done in fine lines and patches of color. The symbolic star is present, but clearly apart from the four sensory phylacteries that materialize the dream. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. The scale of evasion is included or not, it is up to you to decide.
That naive drawing on a light background is remarkably modern for its time, indeed preceding the research by Dubuffet and Chaissac on Art Brut.
In July 1944 Miro managed to send the Constellations to the United States. Pierre Matisse bought the series which he exhibited in his gallery in New York in January 1945. At that time it becomes legitimate to imagine that the end of the horrors is coming. In his studio in Barcelona, Miro accompanies this hope by a chronicle of oils on canvas, a technique that he had not used during the darkest hours.
The first installment of this series is dated January 26 and titled Femme et Oiseau dans la Nuit. The outlines of the woman are painted in thin black lines, much easier to read over the bright white background than the extraterrestrial characters of the 1940 Constellations. The eyes and the sex form colorful figures inside this body.
This dreamlike image is neither realistic nor cubist. The position of the eyes in the circle of the head responds only to a geometric balance. The composition is completed by musical notes and by stars.
As expected, the situation is improving. On February 1 with a Femme rêvant de l'Evasion (woman dreaming of escape), the wicked birds have already disappeared. This oil on canvas 146 x 114 cm was sold for £ 8.4M by Sotheby's on February 5, 2013, lot 26.
The main figure is human, but done in fine lines and patches of color. The symbolic star is present, but clearly apart from the four sensory phylacteries that materialize the dream. The forms that appear at the top of the image and inside the face look like musical notes. The scale of evasion is included or not, it is up to you to decide.
That naive drawing on a light background is remarkably modern for its time, indeed preceding the research by Dubuffet and Chaissac on Art Brut.
2
March 22, 1945 Femme dans la Nuit
2018 SOLD for $ 22.6M by Phillips
On November 15, 2018, Phillips sold for $ 22.6M from a lower estimate of $ 12M a Femme dans la Nuit dated March 22, oil on canvas 130 x 163 cm, lot 4. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
3
May 7, 1945 Femme Etoiles
2022 SOLD for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's
The 18th and last opus of the war series, Femme, Etoiles is dated May 7, 1945, the day before the unconditional surrender of Germany. Normal life is going to restart.
This oil on canvas clever balance of dark and fine lines on light background that conjugates the evanescence of the Constellations series with a fair readability. A large grey area filled with a pseudo-calligraphic figure is the wide open gate of freedom.
Femme, Etoiles, oil in canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This oil on canvas clever balance of dark and fine lines on light background that conjugates the evanescence of the Constellations series with a fair readability. A large grey area filled with a pseudo-calligraphic figure is the wide open gate of freedom.
Femme, Etoiles, oil in canvas 114 x 146 cm, was sold for $ 17.8M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 4. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
4
May 11, 1945 Femme entendant de la musique
2018 SOLD for $ 21.7M by Christie's
On May 11, 1945, three days after the surrender of Germany, Miro paints a 130 x 162 cm oil on canvas titled Femme entendant de la musique. Five reserves on a black background are each inhabited by a hybrid calligraphy that is both a musician and a musical note. The dark background, scarce in that year in Miro's art, is a dynamic evocation of the atmosphere of a cabaret.
Femme entendant de la musique is estimated $ 10M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 5 A.
On May 26, Miro makes another optimistic painting, Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique.
Femme entendant de la musique is estimated $ 10M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 15, lot 5 A.
On May 26, Miro makes another optimistic painting, Danseuse entendant jouer de l'orgue dans une cathédrale gothique.
1945 Consider the Lilies
2012 SOLD 18.5 M$ including premium
"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of them." (Luke 12:27).
In 1945, Alexander Calder looked at the lilies. Not only Lily of Force is one of his most successful mobiles, but it provides the key to the inspiration of the artist.
Son of an artist, Calder is an engineer. To rebuild the world, he tries to create carousels of toys, before introducing the movement in sculpture in 1932.
Lily of Force is a complex wire structure, over 2 meters high, perfectly balanced despite its delicate features. The lilies have found their way up. The movement of the mobile reminds the passage of sunlight in the foliage, with the wonderful effect of nature when leaves never shadow one another.
It is also a bridge between abstraction and figuration in the art of Calder. For another reason, this artwork is extremely important. Calder loved Europe and its avant-gardes, Mondrian, Miro. Fleeing the war, he is in the United States in 1945. Lily of Force is a link between Europe slowed by the war and the sudden restart of American creativity: Pollock, Still, Rothko.
Lily of force is estimated $ 8M. for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8. I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
In the weeks before the sale, the interest of the art market for Calder was the subject of several comments. They finally discovered that the strong personality of Calder enabled him to develop a valid and original art.
Lily of Force arrived at auction at the right time. This mobile has been sold $ 18.5 million including premium.
In 1945, Alexander Calder looked at the lilies. Not only Lily of Force is one of his most successful mobiles, but it provides the key to the inspiration of the artist.
Son of an artist, Calder is an engineer. To rebuild the world, he tries to create carousels of toys, before introducing the movement in sculpture in 1932.
Lily of Force is a complex wire structure, over 2 meters high, perfectly balanced despite its delicate features. The lilies have found their way up. The movement of the mobile reminds the passage of sunlight in the foliage, with the wonderful effect of nature when leaves never shadow one another.
It is also a bridge between abstraction and figuration in the art of Calder. For another reason, this artwork is extremely important. Calder loved Europe and its avant-gardes, Mondrian, Miro. Fleeing the war, he is in the United States in 1945. Lily of Force is a link between Europe slowed by the war and the sudden restart of American creativity: Pollock, Still, Rothko.
Lily of force is estimated $ 8M. for sale by Christie's in New York on May 8. I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
In the weeks before the sale, the interest of the art market for Calder was the subject of several comments. They finally discovered that the strong personality of Calder enabled him to develop a valid and original art.
Lily of Force arrived at auction at the right time. This mobile has been sold $ 18.5 million including premium.
1945 Two Puritans by Hopper
2021 SOLD for $ 11.6M by Christie's
The world is changing too fast. Peggy Guggenheim is introducing in New York the European modern art. The art critic Guy Pène du Bois applauds his friend Edward Hopper as the guarantor of tradition. According to Pène du Bois, Hopper "turned the Puritan in him into a purist, turned moral rigors into stylistic precisions".
Edward and Jo are married since 1924. They live in New York but since 1930 they spend half the year in Cape Cod. Edward does not like the paintings made by Jo but she plays a valuable role by commenting in her notebook the symptoms of the creativity of her surprising and hermetic husband.
Edward does not paint much in 1945 but he is flattered by the opinion of Pène du Bois and takes his pencils again. Like the ancient travelers, he uses to paint in his studio from drawings made on the field.
On November 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 11.6M an oil on canvas 76 x 102 cm resulting from this new creative fervor, lot 39C estimated $ 10M. It features two small houses side by side and separated from a grassy alley by a unique white fence. They are of the same pattern except that the nearest has an additional floor. The immaculate white walls and fence express the purity.
The artist titled this work Two Puritans, in a direct link with the statement by Pène du Bois. Jo notes that only one house had served as a model for both. There is no doubt that the two houses symbolize the weightier Edward and his petite wife although Jo's notebooks do not reveal Edward's intimate intentions. The windows are lit like in a wink. The intimacy of the couple is preserved by the absence of doorknobs and of opening in the fence. The alley and trees are the dirty external world.
On November 28, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 9.6M a painting made in the following year, showing a house flanked by a barn in the countryside, titled October on Cape Cod. The house is the same as the "Jo" house of the Puritans.
Edward and Jo are married since 1924. They live in New York but since 1930 they spend half the year in Cape Cod. Edward does not like the paintings made by Jo but she plays a valuable role by commenting in her notebook the symptoms of the creativity of her surprising and hermetic husband.
Edward does not paint much in 1945 but he is flattered by the opinion of Pène du Bois and takes his pencils again. Like the ancient travelers, he uses to paint in his studio from drawings made on the field.
On November 11, 2021, Christie's sold for $ 11.6M an oil on canvas 76 x 102 cm resulting from this new creative fervor, lot 39C estimated $ 10M. It features two small houses side by side and separated from a grassy alley by a unique white fence. They are of the same pattern except that the nearest has an additional floor. The immaculate white walls and fence express the purity.
The artist titled this work Two Puritans, in a direct link with the statement by Pène du Bois. Jo notes that only one house had served as a model for both. There is no doubt that the two houses symbolize the weightier Edward and his petite wife although Jo's notebooks do not reveal Edward's intimate intentions. The windows are lit like in a wink. The intimacy of the couple is preserved by the absence of doorknobs and of opening in the fence. The alley and trees are the dirty external world.
On November 28, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 9.6M a painting made in the following year, showing a house flanked by a barn in the countryside, titled October on Cape Cod. The house is the same as the "Jo" house of the Puritans.
1945 Homecoming Marine by Rockwell
2006 SOLD for $ 9.2M by Sotheby's
Young Americans have gone to war. Norman Rockwell anticipates the surrender of Germany and prepares a cover illustration for the Saturday Evening Post. On May 26, 1945, the newspaper publishes The Homecoming. The second world war ended in the middle of spring, but few readers will notice that the tree has no leaves : the wait for the event has been too long.
For this image, Rockwell exercises his talent for stories with a large group, which were notoriously difficult to incorporate on a cover page. His masterpiece in this style, a forge contest scene with more than twenty characters painted in 1940, had been published as a double central page.
The Homecoming shows the exuberant and communicative joy of the family, the neighbors and the dog on the return of a soldier. Rockwell likes to show life and emotions in the village. The soldier standing from behind is a pretext for this legitimate enthusiasm. No matter what his military actions have been, he is indeed a man loved by all at the moment when his return rebuilds his family. The artist did not omit the Service flags that symbolize the wait of the families.
The 71 x 56 cm oil on canvas preparing The Homecoming was sold for $ 6.5M by Christie's on May 22, 2019, lot 60.
After the moment of intense emotion of the homecoming of the soldier boy, the end of the war remains a very good theme for this popular magazine. On October 13, 1945, the cover illustration is a Rockwell work with another group effect, titled Homecoming Marine. The hero tells his stories to an audience of all ages.
The 117 x 107 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 9.2M by Sotheby's on May 24, 2006. It is illustrated in the post sale report shared by Artnet.
For this image, Rockwell exercises his talent for stories with a large group, which were notoriously difficult to incorporate on a cover page. His masterpiece in this style, a forge contest scene with more than twenty characters painted in 1940, had been published as a double central page.
The Homecoming shows the exuberant and communicative joy of the family, the neighbors and the dog on the return of a soldier. Rockwell likes to show life and emotions in the village. The soldier standing from behind is a pretext for this legitimate enthusiasm. No matter what his military actions have been, he is indeed a man loved by all at the moment when his return rebuilds his family. The artist did not omit the Service flags that symbolize the wait of the families.
The 71 x 56 cm oil on canvas preparing The Homecoming was sold for $ 6.5M by Christie's on May 22, 2019, lot 60.
After the moment of intense emotion of the homecoming of the soldier boy, the end of the war remains a very good theme for this popular magazine. On October 13, 1945, the cover illustration is a Rockwell work with another group effect, titled Homecoming Marine. The hero tells his stories to an audience of all ages.
The 117 x 107 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 9.2M by Sotheby's on May 24, 2006. It is illustrated in the post sale report shared by Artnet.
