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Lot Essay
"To paint one must create, and one should not completely imitate nature. Studying nature allows one to understand the self, but do not be captured by nature, instead seek to capture nature. If you can take the beauty and power of nature, emphasize it, showcase its changes, then you have produced your own creation.” - Ran In-Ting, Ran In-Ting Watercolor Album
The artist Ran In-Ting was born in Luodong, in Taiwan’s Yilan County in 1903. His father Ran Chien, a former Qing scholar, taught him the basics of Chinese ink painting techniques as a young child. In a stroke of fate, Ran found a mentor in Japanese painter Kinochiro Ishikawa when he was twenty-one years old, and studied painting under Ishikawa’s tutelage for four years. Ran’s early works were highly influenced by Ishikawa’s artistic style, utilizing clean, simple techniques. Later on, influenced by the humid, rainy, and misty climate in which he lived, Ran In-Ting began to incorporate the ink painting technique of cun ca (dry-brush rubbing) into his work to create a unique artistic style of his own. Landscape of Taloco (Lot 8013) is about 5.5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, was painted in 1965, and is claimed by some to be the seminal work of Ran In-Ting’s late years.
Ran In-Ting studied abroad in Japan in his youth, and studied British watercolour painting under Ishikawa, with watercolour masters such as J.M.W. Turner and John Constable serving as models and inspirational touchstones. At the height of his creativity, however, he began to incorporate traditional Chinese ink painting techniques into his watercolours, highlighting the natural textures of his paper and visually bringing forth the grandeur of Chinese landscapes.
In terms of technique, Landscape of Taloco combines transparent, translucent, and opaque layers of paint. Ran has utilized ink-black as a dominant colour, with a unified colour scheme. The painting features fine brushstrokes and a multi-point perspective, with clear layers in the depiction of spatial distance: pavilions interspersed across the left, middle, right, and high and low ground gives the painting a sense of visual balance. The winding pathway in the foreground acts as a starting point, passing through tunnels and stepped paths, and leading our eye through the wooden bridge to the other set of mountaintops. Mist covers the entire landscape to settle at the foot of the mountains, enhancing the gleaming, scenic Taroko Gorge springtime in all its glory.
Chiang Chao-shen, an accomplished artist and former Deputy Director of the National Palace Museum, once pointed out Ran In-Ting’s attention to stone in the mountains that he painted, and the diverse lines Ran used to convey the quality of rock— lines that were created using the “rubbing” technique often found in Chinese paintings. He felt Ran’s art synthesized elements of both Chinese painting and watercolour painting. Another painting that skilfully conveys the glories of springtime landscapes is the painting Early Spring by Song dynasty painter Guo Xi, who painted his rocks in swirls, giving a cloud-like texture to the stony peaks— the atmosphere feels transformative and almost alive. Landscape of Taloco utilizes techniques borrowed from the Song painters in its use of ink-wash lines and layered brushstrokes, breaking away from traditional British watercolour methods and Ishikawa’s own ethereal style and instead echoing the grandeur of Song shan-shui landscape paintings.
This painting, depicting the scenic Taroko Gorge, is an homage to Ran’s native landscape, which he called a natural wonder. Deep mountains and eerie hollows, steep cliffs, waterfalls and streams… everywhere the sight of high mountains and flowing water, and ancient trees dotting the mountainside. Zhang Daqian once described Taroko Gorge as a “wonder of the world”. His painting Central Cross-Island Highway is filled with meandering mists, torrential waterfalls, and staggering slopes—a distinctly Chinese shan-shui painting. In Ran In-Ting’s painting, however, the travellers scattered across the scene highlights the contrast between them and the grandeur of the massive natural landscape. It also reveals his nostalgic attention to humanity, along with his sensitivity to the natural world and love for his homeland.
The artist Ran In-Ting was born in Luodong, in Taiwan’s Yilan County in 1903. His father Ran Chien, a former Qing scholar, taught him the basics of Chinese ink painting techniques as a young child. In a stroke of fate, Ran found a mentor in Japanese painter Kinochiro Ishikawa when he was twenty-one years old, and studied painting under Ishikawa’s tutelage for four years. Ran’s early works were highly influenced by Ishikawa’s artistic style, utilizing clean, simple techniques. Later on, influenced by the humid, rainy, and misty climate in which he lived, Ran In-Ting began to incorporate the ink painting technique of cun ca (dry-brush rubbing) into his work to create a unique artistic style of his own. Landscape of Taloco (Lot 8013) is about 5.5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, was painted in 1965, and is claimed by some to be the seminal work of Ran In-Ting’s late years.
Ran In-Ting studied abroad in Japan in his youth, and studied British watercolour painting under Ishikawa, with watercolour masters such as J.M.W. Turner and John Constable serving as models and inspirational touchstones. At the height of his creativity, however, he began to incorporate traditional Chinese ink painting techniques into his watercolours, highlighting the natural textures of his paper and visually bringing forth the grandeur of Chinese landscapes.
In terms of technique, Landscape of Taloco combines transparent, translucent, and opaque layers of paint. Ran has utilized ink-black as a dominant colour, with a unified colour scheme. The painting features fine brushstrokes and a multi-point perspective, with clear layers in the depiction of spatial distance: pavilions interspersed across the left, middle, right, and high and low ground gives the painting a sense of visual balance. The winding pathway in the foreground acts as a starting point, passing through tunnels and stepped paths, and leading our eye through the wooden bridge to the other set of mountaintops. Mist covers the entire landscape to settle at the foot of the mountains, enhancing the gleaming, scenic Taroko Gorge springtime in all its glory.
Chiang Chao-shen, an accomplished artist and former Deputy Director of the National Palace Museum, once pointed out Ran In-Ting’s attention to stone in the mountains that he painted, and the diverse lines Ran used to convey the quality of rock— lines that were created using the “rubbing” technique often found in Chinese paintings. He felt Ran’s art synthesized elements of both Chinese painting and watercolour painting. Another painting that skilfully conveys the glories of springtime landscapes is the painting Early Spring by Song dynasty painter Guo Xi, who painted his rocks in swirls, giving a cloud-like texture to the stony peaks— the atmosphere feels transformative and almost alive. Landscape of Taloco utilizes techniques borrowed from the Song painters in its use of ink-wash lines and layered brushstrokes, breaking away from traditional British watercolour methods and Ishikawa’s own ethereal style and instead echoing the grandeur of Song shan-shui landscape paintings.
This painting, depicting the scenic Taroko Gorge, is an homage to Ran’s native landscape, which he called a natural wonder. Deep mountains and eerie hollows, steep cliffs, waterfalls and streams… everywhere the sight of high mountains and flowing water, and ancient trees dotting the mountainside. Zhang Daqian once described Taroko Gorge as a “wonder of the world”. His painting Central Cross-Island Highway is filled with meandering mists, torrential waterfalls, and staggering slopes—a distinctly Chinese shan-shui painting. In Ran In-Ting’s painting, however, the travellers scattered across the scene highlights the contrast between them and the grandeur of the massive natural landscape. It also reveals his nostalgic attention to humanity, along with his sensitivity to the natural world and love for his homeland.