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BOUNTIFUL COLOURS: IMPORTANT LIN FENGMIAN PAINTINGS FROM THE ROBERT CHANG COLLECTION

LIN FENGMIAN (1900-1991)

Autumn Forest

Details

LIN FENGMIAN (1900-1991)
Autumn Forest
Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper
68 x 134.5 cm. (26 3/4 x 53 in.)
Signed, with one seal of the artist

Provenance

Rong Bao Zhai (H.K.) Company Limited, Associated Fine Arts Auctioneers Limited, Sale of Fine Modern Chinese Paintings, 8 October 1991, Lot 198.

Literature

Important Chinese Paintings from the Robert Chang Collection: Works by Seventeen Masters, Sotheby’s Hong Kong Ltd., Hong Kong, June 2002, pp.178-179; pl.208.

Further Details

This season, Christie’s is honoured to present Bountiful Colours: Important Lin Fengmian Paintings from the Robert Chang Collection. Exceptional in quality, bountiful in colours, and rare in their compositions, these paintings have been in the collection for over three decades and adorned Chang’s home for an equally long time. Opera Figures, Dunhuang Dancers, and Autumn Forest are undoubtedly some of the best examples of the artist’s works that have ever come to the market and represent the pinnacle of the artist’s career in different stages of his life.Born in Shanghai in the 1920s, Chang opened a department store in his teens before quitting for Hong Kong in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War. Chang arrived in Hong Kong alone, lacking academic qualifications and carrying just a suitcase and $24 in his pocket. With no friends, family or money and without speaking any English or Cantonese, Chang had a can-do attitude and a father who could help kick-start his career from afar. His father, a respected antique dealer in Shanghai, sent his son a steady supply of objects to sell from his stall in Cat Street Market with notes explaining why they were important and how to price them. Growing up surrounded by art and antiques, Chang perceived his father as his teacher and inspiration.Not long after setting up on Cat Street, Chang became an important broker between Hong Kong and Taiwan. As he started making money and his appreciation of antiques grew, he began to build a collection of his own — particularly in ceramics and Chinese paintings. Chang actively bought at a time when antiques and paintings were relatively “cheap” by today’s standards. Where British and American collectors had dominated the Chinese antiquities market in the first half of the 20th century, Chang — along with peers such as T.Y. Chao, J.M. Hu, K.S. Lo and E.T. Chow — was one of a few Chinese collectors who helped turn Hong Kong into a hub in the second half of the 20th century. By the 1960s, he ran five stores and became the golden boy of the Chinese art and antiquities trade.When the traditional way of doing business in Hong Kong was mainly private transactions between dealers and collectors, Chang helped usher in a complex new marketplace: in the 1980s, he was instrumental in encouraging the major auction houses to set up in the city. His contribution to the industry lies far beyond his own business.Chang attributes his success to a willingness to learn. He has never stopped looking to improve his knowledge — whether reading books, talking to other experts, or travelling the world to see art in auctions and museums. This spirit is symptomatic of a passion for his subject and a deep-rooted work ethic. ‘Retirement isn’t on my agenda,’ he says. ‘I’m going to work till the day I drop… As long as there’s something I fancy — and can afford — I’m still determined to acquire it. Even if I were 150 years old, I’d feel compelled to buy it.’

Sale Room Notice

Please note provenance record:
Rong Bao Zhai (H.K.) Company Limited, Associated Fine Arts Auctioneers Limited, Sale of Fine Modern Chinese Paintings, 8 October 1991, Lot 198.

請注意作品來源：
榮寶齋（香港）有限公司，協聯古玩拍賣有限公司，中國近代字畫拍賣會，1991年10月8日，編號198。

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Carmen Shek Cerne (石嘉雯) Vice President, Head of Department, Chinese Paintings

cshek@christies.com +852 2978 9981

Lot Essay

Permeated with glorious red, orange, yellow and green hues and full of luminosity and vitality, Lin Fengmian’s Autumn Forest is his landscape painting at its finest. Its shimmering tones, fresh like after a cool shower, embrace the land with warmth and comfort.Reminiscing the landscape of West Lake after he left Hangzhou, Lin Fengmian began to paint autumn scenery in the 1950s. His foremost concerns in the series are luminosity and the colour palette. Lin’s training in Western oil painting gave him the confidence and ability to render light effects, colours, shadows, and spatial dimensions beautifully, differing drastically from the techniques of traditional Chinese painters. Autumn sceneries were some of the artist’s favourite subjects; these works varied in style and composition depending on which period they came from during his career. Autumn Forest is a prime example where Lin Fengmian embraced joy and optimism - full of vibrant and contrasting colours, shimmering in golden autumn lights.In the late 1970s, Lin Fengmian moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai, where he reached the final pinnacle of his career. While in China, his art was not understood and was only acquired randomly by Western art connoisseurs. Since settling in the city, Lin found more room to promote his paintings and eventually held exhibitions in Hong Kong, Paris, Japan and Taiwan. Although his artistic development then was an extension of his time in China, his creative expression had become more liberated and mature. As a young student in Europe, Lin shocked the art world with his expressive and atmospheric rendition of Searching and Life, two of his large oil paintings. He continued to render larger paintings after returning to China until the 1940s, when he retreated from the art circle and confined himself to the square-sized canvas that the world associates him with today. With his past suffering finally behind him, Lin resumed painting some larger-scale works in Hong Kong, even though never in the same stamina. The horizontal compositions from this period are often depictions of scenery or lotus ponds, with a plethora of colours to represent the particular stage in his life.

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