Fragrant Lotuses

Details

SHI LU (1919-1982)
Fragrant Lotuses
Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper
95.5 x 81 cm. (37 5⁄8 x 31 7⁄8 in.)
Entitled, inscribed and signed, with one painted seal of the artist

Provenance

Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Paintings, 30 April 2001, Lot 152.

Literature

Six Artists of the Chang’an School Exhibition Catalogue, National Art Museum of China and China Artists Association, Shaanxi Branch, Beijing, December 1991, p.56.

Exhibited

Beijing, National Art Museum of China, National Art Museum of China and China Artists Association Shaanxi Branch, Six Artists of the Chang’an School, December 1991.

Further Details

The owners of this collection began acquiring 20th-century Chinese paintings in the late 1980s. Having lived in Japan and Hong Kong, they travelled extensively throughout Asia and to China, where they were excited by the intellectual rigour, the experimentation of materials and techniques, and the vitality of the artists who painted in the ink tradition. Acquiring works from galleries and auction houses, the owners assembled a diverse collection of paintings by masters including Zhang Daqian, Wu Guanzhong and Shi Lu. Each of the above artists had a strong, unique visual identity and interpreted the Chinese ink tradition differently than the others. Long treasured by the owners, these paintings are coming to the market for the first time since they were acquired over two decades ago.