Mountains in China
See also : Landscape China Chinese art Song and Yuan Modern China New Chinese painting Zhang Daqian Fu Baoshi Current art
Chronology : 14th century 20th century 1920-1929 1925 1940-1949 1948 1955 1963 1964 1965 21st century 2010-2019 2017
Chronology : 14th century 20th century 1920-1929 1925 1940-1949 1948 1955 1963 1964 1965 21st century 2010-2019 2017
1350 The Story of Ge Hong
2011 SOLD for RMB 400M including premium by Poly
narrated in 2020
The Chinese culture comes from a very strong literary tradition mixed with mysticism. In the 11th century CE, Mi Fu opened the way to the themes of the literate landscape, and for several centuries the graphic arts were often devoted to these ancient stories.
On June 4, 2011, Poly sold for RMB 400M including premium a hanging scroll painted in ink and wash circa 1350 CE by Wang Meng on the theme of the migration of Ge Hong to the sacred mountains. The provenance of this artwork has been established over six centuries. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Born into a family of artists, Wang Meng is considered as one of the four literati masters of the Yuan dynasty. His graphic style is very dense, with the energy of a calligrapher.
Ge Hong, also named Ge Zhichuan, lived 1000 years before Wang in the Eastern Jin dynasty. Nicknamed the Little Immortal Old Man, he was an alchemist, a doctor and above all a Taoist master. He was going to study the secrets of immortality in the Luofu mountains. He stayed there for eight years. The image by Wang shows Ge and his suite passing through a valley under a very rocky landscape. Seven poems have been added.
The Palace Museum in Beijing has a 139 x 58 cm scroll by the same artist on the same theme, dated around 1360, with another landscape in an oblique perspective, showing in the best Chinese graphic tradition the smallness of a great sage in the immense nature.
On June 4, 2011, Poly sold for RMB 400M including premium a hanging scroll painted in ink and wash circa 1350 CE by Wang Meng on the theme of the migration of Ge Hong to the sacred mountains. The provenance of this artwork has been established over six centuries. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Born into a family of artists, Wang Meng is considered as one of the four literati masters of the Yuan dynasty. His graphic style is very dense, with the energy of a calligrapher.
Ge Hong, also named Ge Zhichuan, lived 1000 years before Wang in the Eastern Jin dynasty. Nicknamed the Little Immortal Old Man, he was an alchemist, a doctor and above all a Taoist master. He was going to study the secrets of immortality in the Luofu mountains. He stayed there for eight years. The image by Wang shows Ge and his suite passing through a valley under a very rocky landscape. Seven poems have been added.
The Palace Museum in Beijing has a 139 x 58 cm scroll by the same artist on the same theme, dated around 1360, with another landscape in an oblique perspective, showing in the best Chinese graphic tradition the smallness of a great sage in the immense nature.
1925 Twelve Landscapes by Qi Baishi
2017 SOLD for RMB 930M including premium by Poly
narrated in 2020
The traditional Chinese graphic art is an uninterrupted series of imitations of the old masters. Bada Shanren's eccentric approach at the very beginning of the Qing dynasty is a rare exception.
Born in Hunan province into a family of poor peasants, Qi Baishi was self-taught. Settled in Beijing at the age of 53 in 1917, he drew inspiration from Bada Shanren to develop a vigorous and spontaneous line, reaching poetry through a free realism. His greatest innovation is the use of inks in very bright colors.
His themes are varied while being ordinary and peaceful : landscapes, trees, countless small things. He paints according to his own observations, is not interested in symbols and allegories and does not follow Bada Shanren in the rebellion. Far away from politics, he will never be threatened.
On December 17, 2017, Poly sold in Beijing for RMB 930M including premium, worth US $ 144M at that time, a monumental suite of twelve screens 180 x 47 cm each. They were painted by Qi in 1925 in light blue, gray, brown and pink on the theme of mountains, villages and blossoming trees.
This result rewards a major work from the seminal period of modern Chinese art of which Qi was one of the greatest influencers. It is to date (2020) the highest price recorded at auction outside New York and the highest price for Chinese art.
The twelve panels are illustrated side by side in the CTV News article announcing their display at the Poly Culture Art Center in Vancouver in October 2017 with an estimate of US $ 100M.
There is only one other similar set by Qi. Painted in 1932, it is kept in a museum in Chongqing.
Born in Hunan province into a family of poor peasants, Qi Baishi was self-taught. Settled in Beijing at the age of 53 in 1917, he drew inspiration from Bada Shanren to develop a vigorous and spontaneous line, reaching poetry through a free realism. His greatest innovation is the use of inks in very bright colors.
His themes are varied while being ordinary and peaceful : landscapes, trees, countless small things. He paints according to his own observations, is not interested in symbols and allegories and does not follow Bada Shanren in the rebellion. Far away from politics, he will never be threatened.
On December 17, 2017, Poly sold in Beijing for RMB 930M including premium, worth US $ 144M at that time, a monumental suite of twelve screens 180 x 47 cm each. They were painted by Qi in 1925 in light blue, gray, brown and pink on the theme of mountains, villages and blossoming trees.
This result rewards a major work from the seminal period of modern Chinese art of which Qi was one of the greatest influencers. It is to date (2020) the highest price recorded at auction outside New York and the highest price for Chinese art.
The twelve panels are illustrated side by side in the CTV News article announcing their display at the Poly Culture Art Center in Vancouver in October 2017 with an estimate of US $ 100M.
There is only one other similar set by Qi. Painted in 1932, it is kept in a museum in Chongqing.
1948 Landscape after Wang Ximeng by Zhang Daqian
2022 SOLD for HK$ 370M by Sotheby's
Zhang Daqian permeated his art with the best antique pictorial traditions, including the blue and green paintings from the Sui, Tang and Song. This practice was vilified by Western observers as plagiarism after the second world war. Yet it fits perfectly in the spirit of continuity that governs the Chinese art for three millennia.
A landscape of rivers and mountains after Wang Ximeng painted in January and February 1948 is a fair example of a transformation performed by Zhang while keeping the spirit and the style of an antique painting. It had not been shown in public since 1983.
Wang was a prodigy artist under the Northern Song dynasty who was taught and commissioned by the Huizong emperor himself. He died in 1119 CE at 23 years old. The unique artwork attributed to him is a handscroll 52 x 1200 cm painted in ink and blue and green colors on silk when he was not yet 18 years old. It is now kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The work by Zhang was to transfer the significant elements of that masterpiece into a 134 x 73 cm hanging scroll of a similar technique. He did not keep the original composition, changing the multi point classical scenery into a modern perspective from a shore while preserving the vastness of the mountain range.
He led the perfection into even copying the seagulls and geese half hidden in the waves. Zhang's make is in fine line and exquisite color including gold flecks that shimmer in the sunlight. The distant mountains are colored in Mogu style.
Landscape after Wang Ximeng was sold for HK $ 370M by Sotheby's on April 30, 2022, lot 3073. Please watch the video shared by the auction house, providing a significant juxtaposition of elements of the antique and modern pictures.
A landscape of rivers and mountains after Wang Ximeng painted in January and February 1948 is a fair example of a transformation performed by Zhang while keeping the spirit and the style of an antique painting. It had not been shown in public since 1983.
Wang was a prodigy artist under the Northern Song dynasty who was taught and commissioned by the Huizong emperor himself. He died in 1119 CE at 23 years old. The unique artwork attributed to him is a handscroll 52 x 1200 cm painted in ink and blue and green colors on silk when he was not yet 18 years old. It is now kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
The work by Zhang was to transfer the significant elements of that masterpiece into a 134 x 73 cm hanging scroll of a similar technique. He did not keep the original composition, changing the multi point classical scenery into a modern perspective from a shore while preserving the vastness of the mountain range.
He led the perfection into even copying the seagulls and geese half hidden in the waves. Zhang's make is in fine line and exquisite color including gold flecks that shimmer in the sunlight. The distant mountains are colored in Mogu style.
Landscape after Wang Ximeng was sold for HK $ 370M by Sotheby's on April 30, 2022, lot 3073. Please watch the video shared by the auction house, providing a significant juxtaposition of elements of the antique and modern pictures.
1955 The Ultimate Ink of Huang Binhong
2017 SOLD for RMB 345M including premium
Chinese graphic art was not a monopoly for the professional artists. The literati had other occupations and did not need to sell their art. Still better : they have contributed by their appreciation of ancient cultures to the remarkable homogeneity of Chinese art throughout the historical period and almost to present day. In this sense the old man who brought to an unprecedented perfection in the early 1950s the very traditional landscape in ink on hanging scroll was not an artist.
Native from Zhejiang province, Huang Binhong had many passions centered on letters and ancient arts including calligraphy. He collected and carved seals, practiced fencing and played guqin. He made drawings since his youth and his favorite theme was the sublime Huangshan mountains which he visited nine times from 1883 to 1935.
Huang worked as an editor and illustrator and also as an art professor. In 1948, aged 85, he settled in Hangzhou where his teaching activity certainly left him more free time. It was from that point that he perfected the art of landscape.
He no longer travels in the mountains and works with memory and imagination, favoring the expression instead of the realism. Like the greatest masters, he does not need a preparatory drawing and does not erase. His full mastery of the width of the line generates superb contrasts enhanced by a skillful use of the voids to show mist and brook. The density of the lines reminds the Dürer hare and the overall composition is well balanced.
Huang had the nice practice of dating some of his works by his age. A view in Huangshan is dated to his 92 years, corresponding to 1955 just before his death. This 171 x 96 cm scroll is estimated RMB 80M for sale by China Guardian in Beijing on June 19, lot 706.
Another scenery realized in the same year, 178 x 74 cm, was sold for RMB 63M including premium by China Guardian on May 18, 2014. It remembers the emotion of the artist comparing in an earlier trip the real view of the mountain with its interpretation by an artist of the Yuan period. The lower estimate that had been announced at RMB 12M attests a posteriori that the extreme quality of the ultimate art of Huang was rediscovered at that sale.
Native from Zhejiang province, Huang Binhong had many passions centered on letters and ancient arts including calligraphy. He collected and carved seals, practiced fencing and played guqin. He made drawings since his youth and his favorite theme was the sublime Huangshan mountains which he visited nine times from 1883 to 1935.
Huang worked as an editor and illustrator and also as an art professor. In 1948, aged 85, he settled in Hangzhou where his teaching activity certainly left him more free time. It was from that point that he perfected the art of landscape.
He no longer travels in the mountains and works with memory and imagination, favoring the expression instead of the realism. Like the greatest masters, he does not need a preparatory drawing and does not erase. His full mastery of the width of the line generates superb contrasts enhanced by a skillful use of the voids to show mist and brook. The density of the lines reminds the Dürer hare and the overall composition is well balanced.
Huang had the nice practice of dating some of his works by his age. A view in Huangshan is dated to his 92 years, corresponding to 1955 just before his death. This 171 x 96 cm scroll is estimated RMB 80M for sale by China Guardian in Beijing on June 19, lot 706.
Another scenery realized in the same year, 178 x 74 cm, was sold for RMB 63M including premium by China Guardian on May 18, 2014. It remembers the emotion of the artist comparing in an earlier trip the real view of the mountain with its interpretation by an artist of the Yuan period. The lower estimate that had been announced at RMB 12M attests a posteriori that the extreme quality of the ultimate art of Huang was rediscovered at that sale.
1963 Infinite Scenery by Pan Tianshou
2018 SOLD for RMB 290M including premium by China Guardian
narrated in 2020
Pan Tianshou spent his entire career teaching art. Specialist in ancient Chinese painting, he was director of the National Academy from 1945 to 1947 and then from 1957 until his public humiliation by the Red Guards in 1966.
Since the 1920s, he developed an innovative technique of painting with his fingers to create a wash, which he completes with a brush for a great boldness in the distribution of details. The artist enters his paper placed on the ground to produce works of very large format.
His drawings have an extremely expressive jerky line. For landscapes, he is the painter of summits, with pines shaken by the wind and eagles and crows proud of their domination.
On November 24, 2018, China Guardian sold for RMB 290M including premium a very high hanging scroll, 360 x 150 cm, made in 1963 in ink and color on paper. Three titles have been proposed : Infinite scenery, Infinite scenery in dangerous peaks, View from the peak.
The composition includes a foreground with a shrub and a series of rocks that lead to the summit. The view is free towards another mountain of which only the upper part has been drawn, the impression of a majestic height being accentuated by the center of the image which is left blank.
Realized in 1958 with the same technique and an equally spectacular composition, a horizontal scroll 140 x 364 cm titled Pine after rain was sold for RMB 206M including premium by the same auction house on November 20, 2019. It is illustrated in the post sale press release of the auction house.
Since the 1920s, he developed an innovative technique of painting with his fingers to create a wash, which he completes with a brush for a great boldness in the distribution of details. The artist enters his paper placed on the ground to produce works of very large format.
His drawings have an extremely expressive jerky line. For landscapes, he is the painter of summits, with pines shaken by the wind and eagles and crows proud of their domination.
On November 24, 2018, China Guardian sold for RMB 290M including premium a very high hanging scroll, 360 x 150 cm, made in 1963 in ink and color on paper. Three titles have been proposed : Infinite scenery, Infinite scenery in dangerous peaks, View from the peak.
The composition includes a foreground with a shrub and a series of rocks that lead to the summit. The view is free towards another mountain of which only the upper part has been drawn, the impression of a majestic height being accentuated by the center of the image which is left blank.
Realized in 1958 with the same technique and an equally spectacular composition, a horizontal scroll 140 x 364 cm titled Pine after rain was sold for RMB 206M including premium by the same auction house on November 20, 2019. It is illustrated in the post sale press release of the auction house.
1964 Maoist Landscapes by Li Keran
2012 SOLD 293M RMB including premium
The art of Li Keran developed during the Cultural Revolution. Westerner artistic circles would like to forget this cultural dictatorship but the Chinese are less resentful and the work of Li is appreciated. It demonstrates in any case that art was not annihilated during this period providing that the themes were politically instigating.
On May 12, 2012, China Guardian sold RMB 124M including premium a painting made by Li in 1974, of very large size, 141 x 243 cm. This colored landscape shows a secular shrine : a former residence of Mao in his hometown of Shaoshan. The yard is animated with groups honoring their hero in different ways.
On June 3 in Beijing, Poly sells two other revolutionary artworks by Li.
Mountains in red, 131 x 84 cm, was painted in 1964, ie shortly before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. The strident red of the landscape could please the government. Groups of white houses maintain a popular simplicity.
Dated 1976, the year of Mao's death, Jinggang Mountain, 176 x 128 cm, is slightly colored in the grand tradition of classical landscapes, but still politically correct. The animation is not assured by a philosopher and his followers but by a schoolmaster and his pupils under the protection of the red flag.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Landscape in Red reached an exceptional price, RMB 293M including premium, equivalent to US$ 46M.
In the press release issued after the sale, it is indicated that this painting is related by the artist to a poem by Chairman Mao. Anyway, this result is indicative of a growing interest for Maoist art.
The image of this red landscape is shared post sale by Art Market Monitor.
The landscape in Jinggang has not been sold.
LATER INFORMATION
A Jinggan Mountain was sold for RMB 138M including premium by China Guardian on November 20, 2019. It is illustrated in the post sale press release of the auction house. It is certainly the same painting as discussed above.
On May 12, 2012, China Guardian sold RMB 124M including premium a painting made by Li in 1974, of very large size, 141 x 243 cm. This colored landscape shows a secular shrine : a former residence of Mao in his hometown of Shaoshan. The yard is animated with groups honoring their hero in different ways.
On June 3 in Beijing, Poly sells two other revolutionary artworks by Li.
Mountains in red, 131 x 84 cm, was painted in 1964, ie shortly before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. The strident red of the landscape could please the government. Groups of white houses maintain a popular simplicity.
Dated 1976, the year of Mao's death, Jinggang Mountain, 176 x 128 cm, is slightly colored in the grand tradition of classical landscapes, but still politically correct. The animation is not assured by a philosopher and his followers but by a schoolmaster and his pupils under the protection of the red flag.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Landscape in Red reached an exceptional price, RMB 293M including premium, equivalent to US$ 46M.
In the press release issued after the sale, it is indicated that this painting is related by the artist to a poem by Chairman Mao. Anyway, this result is indicative of a growing interest for Maoist art.
The image of this red landscape is shared post sale by Art Market Monitor.
The landscape in Jinggang has not been sold.
LATER INFORMATION
A Jinggan Mountain was sold for RMB 138M including premium by China Guardian on November 20, 2019. It is illustrated in the post sale press release of the auction house. It is certainly the same painting as discussed above.
1964 The Mountains of the Great Helmsman
2015 SOLD for RMB 184M including premium
The beautiful mountains of China had inspired artists for centuries. With the approach of the Cultural Revolution, Li Keran provides this classic theme with a political significance.
In 1962, his rocky landscapes become deep red. The mountains are powerful towers that occupy almost the whole picture, limiting the place left to the sky. Hanging scrolls displaying down to the valley are also a tradition in Chinese landscape art. Li is not missing it and his red mountains become a protection for the fertile valley and the small houses with white fronts.
An ink and color on paper 131 x 84 cm simply titled Red Mountains executed in 1964 was sold for RMB 293M including premium by Poly on 3 June 2012. This work includes a political refinement: the high mountain does not fully hide the view : the distant hills in the top left of the picture symbolize the unlimited future of Maoism.
On November 15 in Beijing, China Guardian sells Thousands of mountains in autumn, 76 x 46 cm, made in the same year in the same technique, lot 1237 estimated RMB 68M. Thousands of mountains, Qianshan in Chinese, is a localization of the landscape interpreted by the artist without a political meaning. The top left inscription is of course a reference to Mao.
In 1962, his rocky landscapes become deep red. The mountains are powerful towers that occupy almost the whole picture, limiting the place left to the sky. Hanging scrolls displaying down to the valley are also a tradition in Chinese landscape art. Li is not missing it and his red mountains become a protection for the fertile valley and the small houses with white fronts.
An ink and color on paper 131 x 84 cm simply titled Red Mountains executed in 1964 was sold for RMB 293M including premium by Poly on 3 June 2012. This work includes a political refinement: the high mountain does not fully hide the view : the distant hills in the top left of the picture symbolize the unlimited future of Maoism.
On November 15 in Beijing, China Guardian sells Thousands of mountains in autumn, 76 x 46 cm, made in the same year in the same technique, lot 1237 estimated RMB 68M. Thousands of mountains, Qianshan in Chinese, is a localization of the landscape interpreted by the artist without a political meaning. The top left inscription is of course a reference to Mao.
1965 Maoshan Majesty by Fu Baoshi
2017 SOLD for RMB 187M including premium by Poly
narrated in 2021
Fu Baoshi was not only the imaginative illustrator of old legends. Throughout his career, he also seeks the quintessence of the landscape, in all seasons, in all weather. He expresses snow, rain, mist, based on many sketches taken in the field.
In 1965, in a commission from the political committee of Jiangsu Province, he visits the site of Maoshan, southwest of Nanjing. This mountain is a high place of Taoism. Reforestation was initiated in 1960, in commemoration of the cantonment of Chen Yi's army during the Sino-Japanese War.
This 106 x 276 cm ink painting, completed in June 1965, includes tiny structures that attest to the civilization brought by Maoism : villages, factories and bridges in the plain, houses on the peaks. It was sold for RMB 187M including premium by Poly on June 5, 2017, lot 2245. The image is shared by China Daily in their post sale report.
Fu Baoshi died three months later from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 61. His monumental panorama of Maoshan had been his last completed work.
In 1965, in a commission from the political committee of Jiangsu Province, he visits the site of Maoshan, southwest of Nanjing. This mountain is a high place of Taoism. Reforestation was initiated in 1960, in commemoration of the cantonment of Chen Yi's army during the Sino-Japanese War.
This 106 x 276 cm ink painting, completed in June 1965, includes tiny structures that attest to the civilization brought by Maoism : villages, factories and bridges in the plain, houses on the peaks. It was sold for RMB 187M including premium by Poly on June 5, 2017, lot 2245. The image is shared by China Daily in their post sale report.
Fu Baoshi died three months later from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 61. His monumental panorama of Maoshan had been his last completed work.
CUI RUZHUO
Intro
Cui Ruzhuo assembles polyptychs composed of vertical panels painted in line and wash on paper in his signature finger ink technique. A single monumental work may occupy a full wall in an exhibition.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. On the theme of the lotus, an assembly of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold for HK $ 124M by Christie's on 29 November 2011, the very year of the creation of that work.
The favorite theme of Cui is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men. A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M by Christie's on May 28, 2013, lot 1347.
From October 2013 Poly Hong Kong had managed twice a year an auction session entirely devoted to Cui, titled Glossiness of uncarved jade.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity. On the theme of the lotus, an assembly of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold for HK $ 124M by Christie's on 29 November 2011, the very year of the creation of that work.
The favorite theme of Cui is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men. A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M by Christie's on May 28, 2013, lot 1347.
From October 2013 Poly Hong Kong had managed twice a year an auction session entirely devoted to Cui, titled Glossiness of uncarved jade.
1
2013 The Grand Snowing Mountains
2016 SOLD for HK$ 307M by Poly
The Grand Snowing Mountains, inspired by Jiangnan, was painted in ink and color on paper by Cui in 2013.
It was probably unpaid after being sold by Poly on April 7, 2013 for HK $ 236M, lot 2314, just after being prepared as a set of eight mounted panels 292 x 143 cm.
It was sold at the same venue on April 4, 2016 for HK $ 307M from a lower estimate of HK $ 150M as a mounted set of six for an overall 300 x 870 cm, lot 1213.
The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
It was probably unpaid after being sold by Poly on April 7, 2013 for HK $ 236M, lot 2314, just after being prepared as a set of eight mounted panels 292 x 143 cm.
It was sold at the same venue on April 4, 2016 for HK $ 307M from a lower estimate of HK $ 150M as a mounted set of six for an overall 300 x 870 cm, lot 1213.
The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
2
2017 Twelve Screens of Landscape
2017 SOLD for RMB 240M by Poly
A set of twelve painted in 2017 by Cui was sold for RMB 240M by Poly in December 2017.
It is illustrated in the post sale report shared by The Value. The reported title, Twelve screens of finger ink landscape, refers to Cui's signature painting technique.
It is illustrated in the post sale report shared by The Value. The reported title, Twelve screens of finger ink landscape, refers to Cui's signature painting technique.
