The Journey to Guangxi

Although the landscape and calligraphy album Journey to Guangxi is not dated, we can establish the dating of this gift from Huang Binhong to Ye Gongchuo by looking at their interactions from other sources. In a 1935 letter to Ye, Huang used a traditional honorific to address him (despite being 16 years his senior) and mentioned the passing of Huang Jie in January. Huang also discussed an album by Huang Jie that Ye had gifted him and his editing of some books on classical texts. In April of the same year, Ye accepted the Chairmanship of Shanghai Museum’s interim Board of Directors, where Huang also served. According to Huang’s official chronology, he, at the urging of Ye, established the Chinese Academy of Arts in 1928 with other scholars of epigraphy, calligraphers, and artists of Shanghai, where he served as its director until 1930. In 1931, he cofounded the Chinese Painting Association with Ye and Lu Danlin. Huang and Ye went on an excursion to the gardens of Suzhou in 1934. These correspondences and published sources testify to the close association between the two.
During both of his journeys to Guangxi for giving lectures, Huang Binhong composed poems and painted outdoors. When was The Journey to Guangxi gifted Ye Gongchuo? The thirteen poems inscribed on the album were published in an early edition of Huang’s literary works. However, discrepancies exist between the print edition and the album. Thus, the album probably predates the print edition before the text was edited. The titles of the sceneries rendered seem similar to the sites described in the research papers on his first trip to Guangxi. Accordingly, this album was likely prepared after Huang’s returned to Shanghai in September of 1928. The album, treasured by Ye and his descendants, has remained in the family for 90 years. A thoughtful gift from Huang to Ye now bears witness to their friendship nearly a century later.