Spring Melancholy

After collaborating together to produce the well-known landscape How Beautiful are our Rivers and Mountains, commissioned by the government for the decoration of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 1959, Fu Baoshi and Guan Shanyue's friendship developed over the years, traveling together to sketch and paint. This piece, dated to 1961, was created when they were travelling together in the northeastern area of China. It was then when they recorded several documentaries together for Central Television Studios that were later exhibited in Beijing, their creative collaborations demonstractive of their close friendship.@Their collaborative works appear at auction occasionally-painted in 1960, Autumn Landscape appeared at Christie's Hong Kong, Fine Modern And Contemporary Chinese Paintings, 28 April 2002, Lot 315 and Viewing the Waterfall painted in 1962 and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, Fine Modern Chinese Paintings, 28 May 2007, Lot 957.