FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ROBERT HATFIELD ELLSWORTH Shi Lu was born Feng Yaheng in Sichuan province in 1919, to a family of wealthy, educated landowners. He studied traditional Chinese painting at the Oriental Art College in Chengdu. In 1939 he journeyed to Yan'an to join forces with the Communist Party and changed his name to Shi Lu, in homage to his two favorite artists, the painter Shitao (1642-1707) and the author Lu Xun (1881-1936). Eventually he settled in Xi'an, where he painted and taught. Shi Lu's final decades were extremely difficult ones: he was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, suffered a mental breakdown, and died of cancer in 1982. Long before Shi Lu's innovation and distinctive painting style was widely appreciated, New York collector and dealer Robert H. Ellsworth recognized and became a passionate advocate of the artist's work. Beginning with his first purchase in the late 1970s, Mr. Ellsworth assembled one of the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Shi Lu's paintings and calligraphy. While Mr. Ellsworth never met Shi Lu, he acquired most of his collection from a close friend of the artist. Mr. Ellsworth continues to treasure the works of this artist today and still keeps his works close by where he can enjoy them daily. These ten works from the Ellsworth collection reveal the range of themes and artistic interests explored by Shi Lu. In his figure paintings, the artist sought to communicate the spirit of his subject by expressing, in just a few brushstrokes, their most salient emotions. For example in Child's Bath, the playfulness of the naked child is shown bending over to play with the water, while the woman's love is demonstrated as she envelopes him with her body and gently washes his head. Bird and flower paintings, such as Ducks are the First to Know the Warmth of Spring and Lotus Blossoms in Summer, allowed Shi Lu to not only enliven his compositions with bright colors but also to experiment with such juxtapositions as dark and light, sharp angles and rounded washes. In his landscapes, Shi Lu most fully employed the energetic, staccato brushstrokes for which his style was best known, incorporating his practice of pulling the elements of his composition, close to the surface, heightening the viewer's sense of engagement and immediacy.

SHI LU (1919-1982)

Indian Sage

Details

SHI LU (1919-1982)
Indian Sage
One seal of the artist
One collector's seal of Robert H. Ellsworth
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and color on paper
63.5 x 55.8 cm. (25 x 22 in.)
20th Century

Literature

The Beauty of Art: Paintings and Calligraphy by Shi Lu from the Private Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, Christie's New York, 2011, p.89.

Exhibited

Christie's New York, The Beauty of Art: Paintings and Calligraphy by Shi Lu from the Private Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, 15 -31 March 2011.

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Lot Essay

This painting of an elderly yet powerful Indian priest was likely painted in the mid-to-late 1950s as a result of a trip that Shi Lu took to India and Egypt. Shi Lu made numerous sketches of what he saw during his travels, and he was clearly struck by the exoticism and strength of his subject. In the 1970s, Shi Lu reworked this and paintings of similar themes by adding symbols, inscriptions, and accent strokes. The overall result is a work of exceptional visual impact.

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